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The Impact of Information technology on the Indian

Railway system
TanmoyDuari, WS-2014-15 ESB Business School,
Hochschule Reutlingen , Germany

Introduction
Indian Railways (IR)) is the principal mode of transport in the country. It is one of
the worlds largest rail networks under a single management . and is the
principal mode of transport in the country.,Initially started in 1848,, with a
single rail link between the cities of Mumbai and Thane, IR has now grown
into a massive network of 115,000 km of track covering a route of
65,436 km (40,660 mi) and 7,172 stations. In 201314, IR carried (a
whopping) 8,425 million passengers (or more than 23 million passengers
daily) and 1050.18 million tons of freight .(1)

Modernization
Being a government owned organization, the modernization and
implementation of new IdeasinofIR has always taken considerable time and
effort , especially when weaning away the employees, workers and users
from (then) existing manual or mechanical systems. But by the 1970s the
benefits of modern electrical and electronic technology could no longer be
ignored and IR ittheir slowly started adopting these modern practices. In
the early 1990s, tThe Indian economy underwent economic reforms leading
to increased international integration and globalization, with it, also came
the Information technology and telecommunication revolution.
In the meantime, it also became essential for the IR to find, and use new
and more effective tools to manage the pressures of maintaining their
infrastructure, assets and functioning , placed on it by an ever growing
population. For this, the Centre for Railway Information system (CRIS)
was setup as collaboration between IT specialists and railway experts, on
deputation from the Indian Railways.
CRIS designs, develops, implements and maintains most of the important
Information systems for the IR. While they have implemented several
important projects over the years (including Freight Operations
Information System, crew management system, Control office application,
e-procurement system, etc.), one of their most important and most visible
solutions has been thePassenger Reservation System(PRS) and the online

railway reservation portal of www.irctc.co.in (Indian Railway Catering and


Tourism Corporation). It is essentially a railway seat reservation/Booking
system for passengers travelling on long distance trains. But what sets it
apart, is the sheer number, and the complex nature of bookings it handles
every day. It is available through a regular web browser or as a mobile
phone application too.

The railway reservation system


The concept of railway seat reservation was introduced in the 1970s.Aaas
there were far too many people competing for the samea limited rail
seating capacity, it was great inconvenience for passengers to travel
without guaranteedseats. In the initial days it was started as a manual
system , and available for only a limited number of trains. Reservations
could only be made month before the date of journey and only at stations
where the train would be stopping. Each station had its own quota from
which it could allot a seat, and if there were people on the waiting list,
they could move up the list, in case there were any cancellations, this was
all done manually in registers (paper). At a specified time before the train
departed, the list from each station would be sent to the starting station
by telegraphit would be compiledto generate the final reservation chart.
The calculation of fares based on class of travel, type of train and
concessions was done manually.(2)The process was entirely controlled by
booking clerks, station, masters and ticket examiners , making it
inefficient, time consuming, slow, erroneous and susceptible to
malpractices like corruption, misallocation, and outright cheating (of both,
the customers and the IR).

Introduction of IT
The computerization of the Reservation system beganin 1985with a pilot
project for the computerized Passenger reservation system (PRS) was
launched in New Delhi and few other cities, this soon developed into a
network of railway reservation centers in all major cities across the
country.(3)They were client stations connected to the main reservation
servers via their own dedicated data lines , VSAT or the then existing
analogue telephone networks. People could walk into any one of these
reservation centers , fill out a form and pay at a counter to get the tickets
from any source to any destination . But the queues were extremely long
and frustrating , and still this system was slow and susceptible to
malpractices, as the availability checking and booking of the ticket was
done by the computer operators at the booking terminal.

Further Improvements

In 2002, the online railway reservation portal of www.irctc.co.inwas


launched, it was a front end for the PRS servers which was now available
to everyone over the internet. Passengers could check for seat
availabilities, make, check and modify their train journeys, all in the
convenience of their homes and save themselves the costs of travelling
and hassles of standing in a queue for hours.It has also eliminated the
need for printed paper tickets, as the system sends out a confirmation
message to the mobile phone of the passenger , and this can be used
instead of the printed ticket. Besides this, the system saved (and isis still
also saving) the IR from spending on additional infrastructure like
buildings, air-conditioning, electricity, furniture, staff, etc.
This hasbrought about an unprecedented level of transparency where the
customer is no longer dependantdependent on a nexus of agents and corrupt
railway employees , to book his/her railway tickets.
Today the PRS and the IRCTC portal provide reservation services to nearly
2.2 million passengers a day on over 2500 trains running throughout the
country. The PRS Application CONCERT (Countrywide Network of
Computerized Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing) is the worlds largest
online reservation application, prepared and maintained by CRIS. The
complex system of 44-Quotas, 8-train classes, 9 seating classes, 162concession classes and 127-coaches(4)that is simplified and now easily
available to passengers at the comfort of their homes. So now instead of
the customers going to Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centers, the
PRS has been brought to the homes of millions of customers and made
their lives easier. IthastrulychangedthewayIndiatravels.

References
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways
(2) http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-procedure-of-railway-reservation-systemin-early-80s
(3) http://borjournals.com/Research_papers/Jun_2013/1356IT.pdf
(4) https://www.railelectrica.com/indian-railways/how-information-technology-isgoing-to-impact-indian-railways/

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