New Delhi, Jan 09: RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., a Navratna CPSE under the Ministry of Railways, has marked a significant achievement in its international expansion by securing a project from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, to establish a greenfield Data Centre for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Addis Ababa.
This initiative is integral to India’s support for the Digital Ethiopia Strategy and emphasizes RailTel’s commitment to providing world-class digital infrastructure beyond India.
The project is expected to be completed within one year, followed by three years of Operation & Maintenance support post-launch. The Chairman & Managing Director of RailTel expressed gratitude to the MEA, affirming the company’s dedication to high standards in delivering this assignment, which reinforces RailTel’s role as a global partner in digital infrastructure aligned with India’s developmental goals.
RailTel is focusing on enhancing India’s position as a technology leader in digital transformation across emerging economies. The company has developed an international expansion strategy to share its proven digital models in partner countries, leveraging its experience in executing critical ICT projects for the Government of India. An example of this is RailTel’s participation in the Unique Identity project in Sri Lanka, backed by funding from India.
The company’s strategy includes replicating India’s digital transformation journey while adapting solutions to local contexts, ensuring they meet local demands while maintaining the reliability and scalability of Indian platforms. RailTel’s offerings are mainly in areas where India has shown leadership, such as Digital Public Infrastructure, Sovereign Cloud, AI-enabled solutions in Healthcare and Education, and government ICT platforms.
Furthermore, RailTel is pursuing partnerships with global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for technology transfer and promoting local manufacturing under the Make-in-India initiative, along with a strong focus on skill development and establishing Centers of Excellence in partner nations. The company is actively exploring opportunities across regions such as the Middle East, Africa, Caribbean, South America, South-East Asia, and Australia.
Having formally begun its international efforts in 2024, RailTel’s inaugural project involved the installation of Electronic LED Scoreboards in Jamaica, supported by the Indian Government. This was followed by another project for supplying Make-in-India laptops for school students in Trinidad and Tobago. The completion of the Ethiopia Data Centre project will further affirm RailTel’s status as a credible international partner capable of delivering secure and impactful digital infrastructure solutions, reflecting India’s rising role as a provider of trusted digital public infrastructure for the Global South.
