The Hindu Business Line : Mouse-powered!

The Railway Budget 2007-08 presented in Parliament unveiled earlier in the this year indicates the growing reliance that Indian Railways proposes to place on IT-related equipment and services so as to increase capacity and improve service. Let us take a look at the various proposals taking shape and how they will impact us as train travellers.For starters, the plans envisage train enquiry call centres functioning in all four regions of the country. A common telephone No. 139, when dialled, at local call rates, will give enable passengers to obtain information on arrival/departure of trains, and availability of seats/berths. These call centres will have additional facilities such aslike SMS alert, and will soon help also in railway ticketing, taxi, and booking, hotel booking as well. IT TO TRANSFORM IR SERVICESRailway Minister's presentation of the Rail Budget 2007-08 in Parliament on 26th February 2007 indicated growing reliance that Indian Railways (IR) propose to have on IT-related equipment and services for increasing their capacity and improving their services. Train enquiry call centres will commence functioning in all four regions of the country during June-September 2007. A common telephone No. 139, when dialled, at local call rates, will enable passengers to obtain information on arrival/departure of trains, and availability of seats/berths. These call centres will have additional facilities like SMS alert, and will soon help also in railway ticketing, taxi booking, hotel booking as well.Furthermore, the Railways has IR have proposed to provide hand-held computer terminals to TTEs (travelling ticket examiners) in reserved passenger carriages. The TTE will be able to feed in the vacancy position - coach-wise and berth-wise - to the PRS (passenger reservation system) which, in turn, will allot vacant berths to waitlisted passengers at ensuing stations.

Commercial portal

Indian Railways plans to With a view to improving both operational output and quality of services, IR propose to substantially enhance its their investment in IT projects. A commercial portal will be developed in the next three years for yield management, specially to attract traffic for returning empty wagons and filling up vacant passenger seats.All modules of FOIS (freight operations information system), including rolling stock maintenance and examination, revenue apportionment, crew management, control charting, etc., will be integrated - all by 2010. Alongside, ERP packages will be implemented in workshops, production units, and selected zonal railway administrations. A common Web site, integrating the more than 50 different railways Web sites, will be developed to also have facilities for e-payment and e-tendering. , etc.

Targets laid out

The Railways' strategies for the IR's IT strategies for the Eleventh Five Year-Plan encompass optimal centralisation of information systems, creation of a core of project managers and operations managers and personnel well versed in the intricacies of IT; empowerment of managers down to the field units to enable them to make effective use of IT in their work; strengthening of CRIS (Centre for Railway Information System) and other internal IT service providers in respect of manpower, resources, and internal processes; besides a comprehensive education and training programme for staff in order to enable them to manage the massive influx of IT equipment. planned in Plan XI.During the India's Tenth Five-Year Plan, systems such as Internet-based enquiries, e-ticketing and unreserved ticketing system (UTS) enabled Railways IR to use IT for enhanced passenger interface. IT-based asset management and maintenance systems have not yet been adequately deployed. in IR. The overall investment need in IT systems projected by IR at this time is about Rs 5,200 crore, excluding the requirement for the proposed dedicated freight corridors. An outlay of Rs 3,100 crore required in the Eleventh PlanPlan XI includes Rs 1,500 crore on customer interfacing applications, Rs 820 crore on asset/resource management, Rs 350 crore on back office systems, Rs 330 crore on IT infrastructure-related systems, and Rs 100 crore on operations-related applications.

Passenger Reservation System

The Railways' IR's Passenger Reservation System (PRS) has been hailed as a model of e-governance. It was first commissioned in 1985 in New Delhi, and extended to Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Secunderabad by 1987. In 1991, over 3,50,000 berths and seats were available each day for reservation - spread over 2,000 railway stations. After CMC Ltd's selection for development of PRS, the Railways IR and CMC worked together for over 15 months during 1984-1985 to finalise the specifications for the system.The first version of PRS (IMPRESS, developed by CMC) continued until 1997, although the software written by CMC had been revised in 1987 and 1990 to suit the evolving architecture. It was based on five host computers, each running independently. The second version (CONCERT, developed by CRIS), set up in 1986, is a fully networked system, enabling "anywhere-to-anywhere" reservation. CONCERT was commissioned between 1997 and 1999, and is presently available at over 1,330 locations, including non-railhead remote locations.The Passenger Reservation System The PRS was extended to provide queries on the Internet in October 2001. In 2002, ticketing over the Internet (I-ticketing) was started by linking the PRS to (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) IRCTC's Web-based front-end. E-ticketing was started by IRCTC in 2005. Presently, PRS handles about one million transactions per day, with revenue averaging about Rs 20 crore daily. Now, more than 5,00,000 tickets per day with reserved accommodation are issued from 3,000 PRS counters across the country. PRS counters will now be provided in Post Offices and Defence establishments. to be operated by them. E-tickets will be issued through e-seva of State Governments, post-offices, petrol pumps, and bank ATMs.

Unreserved ticketing system

The Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) was conceived in December 2001. It provides the concept of cluster-to-anywhere booking, up to three days in advance for non-suburban and suburban tickets in the unreserved segment, which accounts for over 90% per cent of the tickets and 55% per cent of the passenger revenue of the Railways.on IR. UTS was implemented by CRIS in August 2002. By March 2006, the system had been extended to over 550 stations. Now, there are some 2,200 computerised UTS counters; The number is proposed to be increased to 8,000 over the next two years. Also, 6,000 automatic ticket vending machines will be installed in major cities and connected with the UTS terminals. The coupon ticketing system, introduced for suburban passengers in Mumbai, will be extended to Chennai and Kolkata. MST (monthly season ticket) renewal through the Internet will be free of cost. A smart card scheme will soon enable passengers to obtain MST as well as daily tickets.Indian Railways has identified some IR have identified some information systems thatwhich, it plans to enhance/develop during the Eleventh Plan: Plan XI, e.g.,The concept of "ticket at doorstep" is to be further developed for reserved, unreserved and suburban tickets, and extended to automatic ticket vending machines for suburban, long-distance unreserved as well as reserved passengers. Over 5,000 ticket vending machines are proposed to be installed in parking lots, station concourses, waiting halls, besides in universities, offices, and shopping malls. , etc.An integrated railway information system is to be developed and implemented to provide information on train movement, ticketing, facilities of display at stations and on trains, as well as through diversified media such as the Internet, through telephones/mobile phones, television, radio and newspaper feeds, etc. The system will also be extended to freight and parcel customers.Indian Railways is already IR are already on the threshold of an IT revolution. aiding the whole panoply of multifarious operational, managerial, and financial aspects. With the country having established its primacy in the vanguard of world's IT software architecture, the RailwaysIR may well covet a place in the sun by dint of some special niches it may excel in, worthy of emulation by many other railway systems and enterprises across the globe.

To be concluded

The author is former MD, Concor.