Information system in Indian railways 1

INDIAN RAILWAYS Total Length of railway tracks 64015 Total no of passengers carried daily 20m Total amount of freight carried daily 2million tonnes No of employees 1.6 million No of passenger trains 9000 No of wagons and coaches 2,50,000

Background Second largest network in the world under single Management Largest Employer in India 12 million Passenger everyday – more than any rail system on earth 500 million metric tons of freight annually Largest civilian government department in India 15 Zones, 6853 stations.

Problem Increasing number of pasengers / customers Rising input cost upto 200% Unavailibility of easy, correct & timely access to information Ineffecient management of resources Revenue leakage Poor Customer Service/Satisfaction . 4

Objective Reduce cost Reduce burden on staff Improve efficiency Provide better Customer Service

What are the solutions to address the problems faced by Indian railways??

Solution Adoption of Customer-centric IT applications UTS NTES ICMS FOIS CMS PRS Integration of all reservation counters CONCERT ( Country wide Network of Reservation and Ticketing counters)

Solution Passenger Reservation System (PRS)- www.indianrail.gov.in Web enabled Journey Planning/Fare/Availibility Reservation between any pair of station Automatic upgradation Uses centralized database 97% reservation made through PRS presently

Solution IRCTC – www.irctc.co.in To remove burden on employees at booking counters. Online ticket reservation system Payments can be made both on Debit/Credit Card Uses the Centralised database of Railways

Solution National Train Enquiry System (NTES) – www.trainenquiry.com Running position and arrival of train Information passed on to customers via IVRS and Web

Solution Freight Operating Information System (FOIS) Instant information of current status of goods in transit Helps in managing inventory Helps in assest utilization

Solution Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) Introduced to address the issue of unreserved tickets System uses centralized database to manage ticketing so that unreserved ticket can be bought from any terminal. Brought simplicity and flexibility into the process of procuring tickets even for unreserved class

Crew Management System (CMS) This centralised software takes care of scheduling, training, and sign on and sign off of these workers. It provides an interface for communicating technical issues (such as problems in the track or locomotive) as well as personal issues (leave application, grievances). Finally, it ensures the security of the Railways by mandating biometric authentication of each work before and after their shift, and testing them for the consumption of alcohol.

CONCERT NETWORK TOPOLOGY Delhi PRS kolkata PRS 2 MBPS (x2) Leased Line 2 MBPS (x2) Leased Line6 Mumbai PRS 2 MBPS (x2) Leased Line Secunderabad PRS 2 MBPS Leased Line 2 MBPS Leased Line Delhi 2 MBPS (X 2) Leased Line Calcutta Mumbai SecBad Chennai PRS 14 Chennai

What are the benefits to customers from the solutions discussed?? INDIAN RAILWAYS What are the benefits to customers from the solutions discussed??

Outcomes Benefits to customers Transperancy Universal Booking Counters Upgradation/ instant update of Status Reduced wait time Customer satisfaction Substantial reduction in the queue length and waiting time in queue for passengers by a drastic reduction in the transaction time per passenger. Dispersal of Railway booking offices to the neighbourhood of the passengers. Decongesting the station by having opened PRS booking locations away from the stations. Substantial reduction in the effort to go to distant railway stations based reservation office for booking of tickets. Reducing the last minute rush at the stations by e-ticketing 16

Benefit to Customers Substantial reduction in the queue length and waiting time in queue for passengers by a drastic reduction in the transaction time per passenger. Dispersal of Railway booking offices to the neighbourhood of the passengers. Decongesting the station by having opened PRS booking locations away from the stations. Substantial reduction in the effort to go to distant railway stations based reservation office for booking of tickets. Reducing the last minute rush at the stations by e-ticketing Substantial reduction in the queue length and waiting time in queue for passengers by a drastic reduction in the transaction time per passenger. Dispersal of Railway booking offices to the neighbourhood of the passengers. Decongesting the station by having opened PRS booking locations away from the stations. Substantial reduction in the effort to go to distant railway stations based reservation office for booking of tickets. Reducing the last minute rush at the stations by e-ticketing 17

What are the benefits to Railways from the solutions discussed?? INDIAN RAILWAYS What are the benefits to Railways from the solutions discussed??

Outcomes Benefits to Railways Increase in the sale of tickets – Increased revenue Increased efficiency Optimal utilisation of berths Analysis of traffic pattern for better overall planning Reduction in Revenue losses Saving on Manpower Eliminate possibilities of fraud Correct charging of Fare and surcharges immediately after giving effect to fare changes by the Railway Board. Earlier, wires and circulars were required to reach each reservation office through post and then be interpreted and manually applied by each staff locally leading to innocent mistakes as well as intentional manipulation causing loss of revenue to the government and overcharging of passengers. Avoidance of mistakes in fare computation as the fares are now given by the central computer. Total transparency in reservation transactions across the country as all information has become universally accessible and each ticket has time, date and booking location printed on it. Better utilization of train berths by elimination of local quotas and the facility to automatically release vacant accommodation during preparation of train charts to downstream stations. Improvement in train occupancy by computerized upgradation of passengers from lower class to higher class of travel in case of vacancy in the higher class and waiting list in the lower class. Facilitating tourists and other visitors from abroad by enabling them to book and print their train journey tickets before they leave their own country. 19

Benefits to Railways Correct charging of Fare and surcharges immediately after giving effect to fare changes by the Railway Board. Earlier, wires and circulars were required to reach each reservation office through post and then be interpreted and manually applied by each staff locally leading to innocent mistakes as well as intentional manipulation causing loss of revenue to the government and overcharging of passengers. Avoidance of mistakes in fare computation as the fares are now given by the central computer. Total transparency in reservation transactions across the country as all information has become universally accessible and each ticket has time, date and booking location printed on it. Better utilization of train berths by elimination of local quotas and the facility to automatically release vacant accommodation during preparation of train charts to downstream stations. Improvement in train occupancy by computerized upgradation of passengers from lower class to higher class of travel in case of vacancy in the higher class and waiting list in the lower class. Facilitating tourists and other visitors from abroad by enabling them to book and print their train journey tickets before they leave their own country. Correct charging of Fare and surcharges immediately after giving effect to fare changes by the Railway Board. Earlier, wires and circulars were required to reach each reservation office through post and then be interpreted and manually applied by each staff locally leading to innocent mistakes as well as intentional manipulation causing loss of revenue to the government and overcharging of passengers. Avoidance of mistakes in fare computation as the fares are now given by the central computer. Total transparency in reservation transactions across the country as all information has become universally accessible and each ticket has time, date and booking location printed on it. Better utilization of train berths by elimination of local quotas and the facility to automatically release vacant accommodation during preparation of train charts to downstream stations. Improvement in train occupancy by computerized upgradation of passengers from lower class to higher class of travel in case of vacancy in the higher class and waiting list in the lower class. Facilitating tourists and other visitors from abroad by enabling them to book and print their train journey tickets before they leave their own country. 20

Summary - Benefits of using IT Issue of reservation ticket from any station to any station. Passenger journey to multiple laps of reservation can be handled from a single window Reservation services can offered round the clock 24x7. Change of train profile can be possible effectively and immediately. Dynamic definition of the advance reservation period is possible. Provides online aggregation of EIS figure such as revenue ,berth utilisation etc. and presentation of the summarised data in the from the operational systems store. Provides automatic database recovery against all kinds of hardware and software failures. Complete audit for transactions and data access. Changes in train profiles (train carriage addition, replacement, de-allocation), route structures, etc., can be made effective immediately with the appropriate contingency handling. Dynamic definition of the advance reservation period is possible. This feature facilitates defining different advance reservation periods for different trains. Impact on Society With an improvement of quality of services, CONCERT’s implementation has had far reaching impacts on the society:- Less travel to know information (IVR) and book tickets, cancel/ modify from anywhere resulting in more convenience less travel less petrol expenditure less pollution and therefore with solid infra-structure for service for public meaning prosperity for the country and society at large. It has also enabled passengers to find out the current status of the PNRs purchased from other PRSs through IVR just by doing a local call thereby saving on their STD bills. Possibilities of replication Proposals have been sent to Bangladesh Railway, Sri Lankan Railway, Malayasian Railway for the replication of this system for their ticketing in the past. 21

? ????