Submitted By

HRBR - Bangalore
Center Batch

Roll No. Name

eMEP-10-023 Rajeev P Nair
eMEP-10-026 Ramaswamy M.V
eMEP-10-034 Srivatsan Padmanabhan
ePGP-03-076 Sanjai Velayudhan
ePGP-03-046 Marie Antoine
 Modernization of passenger reservation system : Indian Railway’s Dilemma

1. Find out the data, Information , Knowledge and Wisdom in this Case Study

Data:
● According to CRIS website, around 11 million passengers climb on board one of 8,520
trains each day and out of that 550,000 have reserved accommodation. The passenger’s
travel times is as long as 48 hours and distances up to several thousand kilometers.
● IR is among the largest railway systems in the world and currently has 63,140 route
kilometers of rail track , over 8000 railway stations, and employs around 1.4 million
people.
● IR currently handles around 16 million passengers per day in over 9500 passenger
trains.Nearly 1 million passengers get their accommodation per day.
● Train was introduced in 1853.
● PRS was piloted in 1985. It was aimed at providing reserved accommodation on any train
reservation counter across the country.
● The transaction time for a ticket through PRS system was just 2 – min.
● Changes in the business rules started to show cracks in PRS system.
● PRS application was run on VAX-750 computer. The original software written was
FORTRAN.
● In 1997, CRIS rewrote the software to provide a fully networked system with 5 servers in
5 cities.
● Current PRS applications get around 6 million hits per day.
● Current PRS application needs a 4 hour a day for data consolidation and backups.
● PRS system at an average collects over Rs. 200 million (more than 4 million USD) in
daily revenue.
● 2% of the ticket is sold through Internet(Online).
● Table 3: Growth of total passengers traffic on IR between 1950 to 2006
● Figure 1: Growth of passengers travelling by Mail and Express trains between 1950 to
2005
● Table 4: PRS implementation in IR beginning from year 1985 thru 2006.
● Table 5: Growth in PRS locations commissioned from 1985 to 2006.
● Table 6: Volume and Complexity of PRS per day .

Information:
● CRIS has its headquarters in New Delhi and with over 350 personnel ,their job is to
develop, implement and maintain a centralized IT applications for Indian Railways(IR).
● PRS managed by IR had 5000 terminals placed around 1350 locations across the country
which is around 750 locations more when compared to 5 years back.
● Indian economic growth which is in an upswing since the mid-1980’s has taken a sharper
upturn in 2003-2004. From a traditional growth rate of about 5%, it began to grow at over
7% and the trend is likely to continue.
● IR’s passenger traffic which was growing at 3% annually is showing signs of growing
over 6%.
● PRS was written entirely in C and dependent on a mainframe operating system and
revolving around the now unpopular Transaction Processing.
 ● Reduction in time and expense involved in ticketing by quicker service to the passengers
and enough information to make the decision quickly.
● Top management in the Railway Ministry had already indicated their willingness to
invest in IT projects.
● PRS takes a hit of 1 million transactions per day even though only 15% of the long
distance journeys are undertaken using reserved accommodation.
● PRS system has a good up-time of 99.2% and the transaction latency is around 3 s.
● PRS application was implemented in a phased manner since its pilot in 1985 and went on
to implement network based application and fully rolled out to the entire nation.
● Internet ticketing has helped people to book ticket anywhere in the world. Online option
of eticketing has helped the travelers by not carrying the ticket.
● Table 3: data tells us that the Total passenger traffic has significantly grown up 4 folds
since 1950.
● Figure 1: Reserved compartment traffic has increased by 8 times since 1950.
● Table 4: PRS went through many changes and implemented new facilities like Tatkal,
Internet ticketing and E-ticketing since it piloted in 1985.
● Table 5: PRS locations increased from 1 to 1320 between 1985 to 2006, which tells that
the traffic is growing and the need for more PRS systems across the country.
● Table 6: indicates that the PRS system ic complex and handles large volume of data.
● Figure 2 : illustrates the organizational structure which indicates that any decision made
in the railways has a big impact to IR as well as the Government.
● The new technology proposed was to use Component based architecture, RDBMS and
Universal standards-based system communication interfaces.
● Using a low cost VT-100 Terminals will reduce network latency to a minimum.
● Ministry of railways wanted a quick response from the CRIS regarding the new business
rules and the PRS upgrade due to increased competition from air and road transports.
● The expectation set for the CRIS team about the new PRS system was to provide Round-
the-clock reservation services, Reservations through diverse media like internet, mobile
phones and the Unreserved and reserved ticketing services to be combined.
● PRS group opinion on the switchover was that the present combination of low cost and
high performance was hard to beat. Platform need a change ,but it is better to do a steady
evolution. Passengers need more from the application, but it is not a good idea to disturb
the core system . The daily maintenance window can be compressed considerably.
● The area of e-Security was a concern due to the old technology used by PRS system.

Knowledge:
● By looking at the data from the tables and figures, the performance for last year was good
and the planning commission is willing to give Ministry of railways additional funds
which can be utilized to upgrade PRS system. Also the Railway minister has declared the
current year as “Year of the Passenger” and want to stay ahead in passenger business.
● Looking at the technology and the stability provided by the PRS system over a decade
made PRS group technical lead that the system can still cater to the changes in business
rules without affecting the performance . Going to a new technology is a risk as the
performance is unknown.
● CRIS had taken over from the PRS application from vendors since 1990 and developed a
fully networked version which is currently in-house . The success of the current
 application has surpassed all the expectations . They wanted everyone to listen to them
and they were confident that they will deliver the results.
● It directorate suggests that they should involve front line customer relationship managers
to develop a new system as they will bring a fresh perspective .
● Ministry of railways has stressed the need of IT audit and compliance of all IT
applications of IR. This aspect is keenly watched by Ministry of home affairs as well as
Prime minister’s office.
● Ramsundar who is in-charge of CRIS is left with 2 options after listening to all that
whether to retain the old system and look ways for improving OR go in for a new system
with all its attendant risk.

Wisdom:
● Seeing the performance and the criticality of the PRS systems , keeping in mind the
growing traffic ever year and also the competition coming from the air and road
transport, The Ministry of railways is willing to invest in the IT projects especially
upgrading the PRS application to a new technology since it is the flagship of the railways.
● Looking at the growth and the PRS application , the PRS group recommends that it is
better to continue with the current system as the application is reliable and has served for
10 years and still has the capacity to cater the expanding population.
● Bringing in the culture of IT audit and compliance will make the PRS application a great
resource to rely on . The fact that the Ministry of Home affairs and the Prime minister’s
office is directly involved makes this application more visible .

2. List out all the Qualitative and Quantitative data used in the case study

Qualitative
● PRS is one of the largest and most important information systems of IR.
● Quick service to public
● Business rule changes like Passenger upgrades, changes in wait list rules
● Better working environment for staff
● Reduction of unethical practices in reserving accommodation.
● PRS is written entirely in C
● Too many changes in program logic will destabilize the PRS .
● Use of Component based architecture as a new technology.
● Use of RDBMS instead of File system.
● Switching the PRS system to a new technology.
● Tap in to Universal standards based system communication interfaces to access
information in a controlled fashion.
● PRS is serving the customers quite satisfactorily and will continue to do.
● Increased competition from Air and Road transport.
● Reservations would have to be offered through diverse media as per Ministry of railways.
● Round the clock reservation services.
 Quantitative:
● Number of passengers on boarding everyday : 11 million
● Number of trains per day : 8520
● Number of passengers booking accommodation per day : 555,000
● Maximum travel time : 48 hours
● Rail track : 63,140 route kilometers of rail track , over 8000 railway stations, and
employs around 1.4 million people.
● Transaction time through PRS : 2 min
● Network system : Installed 5 servers in 5 cities.
● PRS applications hit : 6 million/day
● PRS application down time :4 hours
● PRS daily revenue : Rs 200 million
● Ticket sold Online : 2%
● Number of PRS terminals : 5000
● Number of PRS location : 1350
● Traditional economic growth in 1990 : 5%
● Economics growth after 2003-2004 : 7 %
● CRIS personnel : 350
● IR Traffic growth (1950 – 2006): 4 folds
● Growth of Passengers booking accommodation(1950 – 2005) : 8 folds.
● SNCF, French railway : handles 130 million transactions.
● Average uptime of PRS : 99.2%
● Average transaction latency : < 3sec
● Number of UTS location in March : 550
● Epected growth of UTS locations in 2007 : 1500
● Growth in PRS locations (1985 to 2006) : 1 to 1320
● PRS Volume : Total number of transactions : > 1 million/day
No of passengers handled : > 0.7 million/day
No of reserved trains : > 2800
No of locations : 1320
PRS Complexity : Types of train : 8
Types of quotas: 40
Types of classes : 9
Types of concessions : 199
Types of coaches : 123

3. Enumerate in the context of the case , What operational and Informational data is used

Operational:
● PRS was piloted in 1985. It was aimed at providing reserved accommodation on any train
reservation counter across the country
● The transaction time for a ticket thru PRS system was just 2 – min.
● PRS application was run on VAX-750 computer. The original software was written in
FORTRAN.
● Current PRS applications get around 6 million hits per day.
● Current PRS application needs a 4 hour a day for data consolidation and backups.
● PRS system at an average collects over Rs. 200 million (more than 4 million USD) in daily
revenue.
● PRS system has a good uptime of 99.2% and the transaction latency is around 3 s.

● PRS Volume : Total number of transactions : > 1 million/day

No of passengers handled : > 0.7 million/day
No of reserved trains : > 2800
No of locations : 1320
PRS Complexity : Types of train : 8
Types of quotas: 40
Types of classes : 9
Types of concessions : 199
Types of coaches : 123

Informational:
● Network system : Installed 5 servers in 5 cities.
● Number of PRS terminals : 5000
● Number of PRS location : 1350
● IR’s passenger traffic which was growing at 3% annually is showing signs of growing
over 6%.
● Growth of passengers travelling with reservation has increased 8 folds since 1950
through 2005.
● PRS has evolved since 1985 to 2006 with major changes in the service by introducing
Tatkal and E-Ticketing.
● Growth in PRS location is increased to 1320 in 2006.
● Rail track : 63,140 route kilometers of rail track , over 8000 railway stations, and
employs around 1.4 million people