07-11-2012, 03:47 PM
Indian Railways IT Interface
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Executive Summary
This report focuses on various aspects of Indian Railways and Information
Technology (IT) interface. Our project has three objectives viz. to examine the
Railway and IT interface from the perspective of Railways, to identify uses of IT for
improving effectiveness and efficiency of Railways and to evaluate issues pertaining
to railways developing and offering IT infrastructure for public use.
We have covered in this report the history of IT interface, various developments in
Railway IT interface till date. We have studied the various uses of IT in railways like
PRS, IMPRESS, CONCERT, FOIS and CRIS. We have also covered the RailNet, it’s
objectives, various phases of implementation, utility of RailNet and various issues in
RailNet.
In the next part of the report, we have studied the RailTel, the corporation formed for
implementation of OFC network for railways. We have focused on issues like need
for Railtel, demand potential, estimated market share, investment required, debt
equity options available, revenue model on the basis of one of these options, SWOT
analysis for RailTel and competitor analysis.
In the final part of this report, we have looked at the Railway IT interface across the
globe that may be useful to identify the various uses of IT in Indian Railways.
Objectives Of The Project
To examine the Railway and IT interface from the perspective of Railways
Identifying uses of IT for improving effectiveness and efficiency of Railways
To evaluate issues pertaining to railways developing and offering IT infrastructure
for public use
History Of IT Interface
60’s
A dedicated skeletal communication network was developed by IR, as a basic
requirement for train operation
Plan to progressively computerize railways working was accepted in principle by
Management and Labor Unions
70’s
? ? Pay-rolls, Inventory control and Operating statistics
? ? Deployment of Computers for productivity improvement through building up
operational data bases
80’s
Computerization of Passenger Reservation Arrangement
Developing a Freight Operations Information System
Replacing the existing Computers at the Zonal Railways
Production Units with the State-of-the-art Computer systems
Provision of Computers at Divisions, New Production units, Work-shops, Sheds
and Depots and Training Institutes
Quantum improvement in the use of Computers in the offices
90’s
Enterprise wide Computer system
IT Applications for Passenger Business Area
Indian Railways IT Interface
Abhishek Kumar, Amit A Gadgil, Ananta N Satapathy, Rajesh U, Sandeep R Prabhudesai
Need For IT In Railways
Transportation Industries such as Railways operate in a dynamic and constantly changing
environment. This requires a continuous update of information about current status and
location of these assets. The optimum utilization of material resources, which they
deploy, would require collection and collation of accurate data on their current utilization
and an inventive analysis of the information collected.
Information Resource is a critical managerial tool for confronting and tackling the
business challenges on a real time basis. Transportation industries are also service
industries and they thrive and flourish on Information - rich soil that provides them the
vitally needed link to their customers and other major stakeholders. Railways being
multi-locational, multi-functional and multi-divisional organization provide an ideal
backdrop for Computer Networks, which can allow sharing of resources across the
Corporation and information with their customers.
Railway Industry, being an age-old industry, finds many of its existing business and
operational practices inadequate for adjusting in the current fast changing business
environment. Unless, Railways also develop capabilities to harness information resources
through the use of exploding information technology, as other industries are doing, its
continued presence as a viable industry in future may become a question mark. On the
contrary, if the railway system can exploit Information Technology to modernize their
operations and practices to suit the needs of their customers, they can gain tremendous
competitive advantage in the present and future business environment.
Background Of IT In Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is the principal mode of transport in the country. IR today has
62,660 route km of rail track. The total investment on IR has been Rs. 356.2 billion. Last
year, IR moved 390.5 million tonnes of freight, generating a traffic output of 272 billion
tonne kms. At the same time the system carried 4,068 million passengers generating a
traffic output of 339 billion passenger kms. This output was produced with the help of
over 7,000 locomotives and 300,000 wagons.