Indian Railways Information Systems

INDIAN RAILWAYS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

AKSHIT SOBTI AMAN AMIT KALANIYA ANKIT KAPOOR ANKUR VERMA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENT ............................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE........................................................................................ 3 RAILWAY BUDGET ............................................................................................................... 4 BALANCE SHEET ................................................................................................................... 5 PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT ............................................................................................. 6 CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS ....................................................... 9 IT STRATEGIES ..................................................................................................................... 10 INFORMATION SYSTEMS................................................................................................... 13 TERMINAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM........................................................................... 13 FREIGHT OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM ..................................................... 16 PASSENGER RESERVATION SYSTEMS ....................................................................... 20 UNRESERVED TICKETING SYSTEM ............................................................................ 23 NATIONAL TRAIN ENQUIRY SYSTEM ........................................................................ 25 INTEGRATED COACHING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ................................................ 28 MATERIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS ........................................... 32 E WORKING SYSTEM (ELECTRONIC FILE MOVEMENT & TRACKING) .............. 33 MATERIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MMS) FOR P-WAY MATERIALS ............... 35 CREW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM .................................................................................... 37 FUTURE PLANS .................................................................................................................... 39

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ACKNOWLEGEMENT The sense of accomplishment and bliss that follows the successful completion of any task would not be complete without the expression of appreciation to the people who made it possible. So with pride, veneration and honour we acknowledge all those whose guidance and encouragement has made successful completion of my project. We would like thank MR. ANKIT MAHINDROO, for the support and encouragement he provided us and the way he handled all our queries and also for instigating a belief in ourselves that we can explore more in our topic discussion. The timely appreciation and the help were needed to complete our report and finally we can confidently say that we came across the difficulties we faced while making this project. Finally we feel indebted to all those people who provided help directly or indirectly in successful completion of this study.

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INTRODUCTION Indian Railways, abbreviated as IR, is the state-owned railway company of India, which owns and operates most of the country's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India. Indian Railways has more than 64,015 kilometres (39,777 mi) of track and 6,909 stations. It has

the

world's

fourth

largest

railway

network

after

that

of

the United

States, Russia and China. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country and carry over 20 million passengers and 2 million tons of freight daily. It is one of the world's largest commercial or utility employers, with more than 1.6 million employees. As to rolling stock, IR owns over 200,000 (freight) wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. Railways were first introduced to India in 1853. By 1947, the year of India's independence, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities. Initially, the Indian railways were both designed and built by the British, during their colonial rule of the subcontinent.

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ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Indian Railways is a department owned and controlled by the Government of India, via the Ministry of Railways. As of December 2010, the Railway Ministry is headed by Mamata Banerjee, the Union Minister for Railways, and assisted by two ministers of State for Railways. Indian Railways is administered by the Railway Board, which has a financial commissioner, five members and a chairman.

3

RAILWAY BUDGET

4

BALANCE SHEET Particulars A. Assets Fixed Assets-Gross Block Less:Depreciation Net Block B. Long Term Loans & Advances C. Investments D. Current Assets, Loans & Advances:: Cash and Bank Balances Other Current Assets Loans & Advances

Figures in Rupees ( in crores) 31.3.06 31.3.07 31.3.08

31.3.09

31.3.10

16.90 2.00

16.98 2.41

17.01 2.81

17.08 3.09

16.99 3.30

14.90

14.57

14.2

13.99

13.69

24730.73

27025.52

31561.91

38392.33

21900.52 0.00 1299.46 47.86 295.09

1642.41

2.00 972.54 114.89 391.25

1478.68

Misc. Expenditure (to the extent not written off)

2.00 1502.19 227.89 420.78

2.00

1012.74 360.28 426.31

2.00 1508.20 430.81 315.89

2150.87

1799.33

2254.90

0.20

34.09

1.18

Foreign Currency Monetary Item Translation Difference A/C

Total Assets

23557.83

26225.98

29192.78

33411.32

40664.10

14448.79 5467.29 19916.08 1106.46

16341.95 5452.22 21794.17 1710.14

19012.60 5085.97 24098.57 1854.65

22600.25 4788.46 27388.71 2256.55

27944.70 5663.88 33608.58 2467.02

493.82 106.60 600.42

617.76 196.04 813.80

773.72 211.63 985.35

900.49 282.53 1183.02

Liabilities & Provisions E. Loan Funds Secured Loans Unsecured Loans F. Deferred Tax Liability (Net)

G. Current Liabilities & Provisions. Current Liabilities Provisions H. Net Worth Represented by: Shareholders funds Share Capital Share application money Reserves & Surplus Total

396.81 42.72 439.53

232.00 0.00 1863.76 2095.76 23557.83

232.00 268.00 1621.25 2121.25 26225.98

500.00 0.00 1925.76 2425.76 29192.78

500.00 300.00 1980.70 2780.70 33411.32

1091.00 2314.48 3405.48 40664.10

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PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT ` in crore Particulars

31.3.06

31.3.07

31.3.08

31.3.09

31.3.10

1892.00

2097.48

2374.33

2726.45

3073.76

141.93

207.93

286.89

359.86

44.57

0.64

0.07

0.08

0.00

14.05

1.96

11.16

Income Lease income

Income on loans, deposits 119.65 & advances Income on investments

0.00

Exchange Rate Variation 6.98 Gain Other Income

1.00

0.05

27.83

9.41

39.08

Total Income

2019.63

2284.03

2624.78

3024.78

3483.94

Interest on Bonds & loans

1300.63

1477.08

1810.29

2162.80

2457.58

Lease Rentals Paid

203.34

182.57

167.49

186.03

103.40

Staff Cost

0.53

0.65

0.95

1.66

1.55

Administrative Expenses

3.17

3.62

3.85

6.50

4.67

Bond Issue Expenses

6.55

6.13

1.78

9.69

93.43

Depreciation

0.39

0.41

0.41

0.37

0.35

1.86

0.00

0.00

34.55

Expenditure

Exchange Rate Variation Loss

6

Total Expenditure

1672.32

1984.77

2367.05

written 0.06

0.00

0.00

0.00

Prior Period Adjustment -1.1

0.03

-1.67

-0.04

-0.12

503.98

611.74

638.35

657.69

788.29

-Current Tax

42.71

68.13

72.33

75.05

135.13

-Deferred Tax

127.38

144.91

144.51

401.84

210.47

Net Profit after Tax

333.89

398.7

421.51

180.79

442.69

160.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

21.04

22.44

17.00

17.00

17.00

General 40.00

40.00

42.16

19.00

46.00

31.50

8.97

19.47

0.00

144.76

253.39

25.32

280.69

Provision

1514.61

2695.53

Back(Net)

(Net income) Net Profit Before Tax

Provision for Taxation

Apportions Proposed

Dividend 150.00

(including

interim

Dividend Paid)

Dividend Tax Transfer

to

Reserve Transfer

to

Exchange 4.00

Variation Reserve Balance transfer to Bonds 118.85

7

Redemption Reserve

333.89

398.70

421.51

180.79

442.69

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CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS The Centre for Railway Information Systems (or CRIS) located in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, was established as a registered society in 1986 by the Ministry of Railways of India, to be an umbrella organization for all computer activities on Indian Railways (IR). CRIS today designs, develops, implements and maintains most of the important information systems of the Indian Railways. CRIS designs, develops, implements and maintains large information systems for the Indian Railways. In addition, CRIS has developed, implemented, and maintained IT systems for other entities such as the Andaman and Nicobar administration (A & N Ship Ticketing system) as well. In recent years, the number of systems being handled by CRIS has grown rapidly. From the initial 3 projects, CRIS is presently handling over 14 large projects.

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IT STRATEGIES 1. The computerisation of the Freight Operation Information System of Indian Railways. FOIS enables management and control of freight movement, optimisation of asset utilisation, and generation of freight invoices ("Railway Receipts"). Many of IR's important freight customers can pay through the electronic payment gateway interfaced with FOIS. 2. Passenger Reservation System (PRS) - CONCERT. A countrywide online passenger reservation and ticketing system, developed and maintained by CRIS, is a complex online distributed client server application developed in C and Fortran programming languages on Digital OpenVMS operating system using RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as middleware. CONCERT (COuntry-wide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing) interconnects the five regional computing systems at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad into a National PRS grid. It allows a passenger from any location to book train tickets from any station to any station. It handles reservations, modifications, and cancellations / refunds. It performs reservation for over 995,000 seats and berths (peak rush as high as 1,017,000) daily. It has complex rules, validations and fare computation techniques interwoven in the application. 3. The Internet based E-ticketing reservation system, whose front-end has been developed by IRCTC. 4. The computerisation of the Unreserved Ticketing System of Indian Railways. Unreserved ticketing constitutes a major component of the IR’s overall ticketing volume and is an important source of revenue. UTS delivers fast and efficient unreserved ticketing from dedicated counters replacing manual Printed Card Tickets/EFTs/BPTs with centralised online sales accounting. The solution architecture lends itself to easy integration with handheld terminals, smart cards, automatic vending machines, etc. 5. National Train Enquiry System for latest train running timings. 6. Web Enabled Claims- The web-based software enables the general public to not only file claim cases through the web but also track the progress of their claims. All the rules and regulations for claims and accident case filing along with contact details of all claims offices are available on the website. 7. Rail Budget Compilation System (RBCS) - Developed for budgetary inputs from the different zones and production units of the Indian Railways, RBCS facilitates

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capturing of data, building of database, analysis of demands and pruning of the estimates for inclusion in the Railway Budget. 8. Vigilance Software System (VSS) - VSS is designed specially for the requirements of Vigilance on Indian Railways and has been implemented in all the Zonal Railway Headquarters. VSS maintains information on vigilance cases / complaints including various reports and correspondence. 9. Material Management Information System (MMIS)- This package is designed specifically for the requirements of stores accounting for P-Way materials and scrap disposal. 10. Comprehensive Accounting & Transaction System (CATS) CATS has been designed with a common database to address functionalities for personnel and Finance Departments. CATS contains two major modules: Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS). 11. Workshop Information SystEm (WISE) WISE is a MIS project for the various railway workshops around the country. Currently it is in operation in 15 workshops, viz. Kharagpur, Jagadhari, Ajmer, Kota, Charbagh, Liluah, Kacharapara, Matunga, Lower Parel, Parel, Bhusawal, Jhansi, Secundrabad, Lallaguda, Jamalpur. WISE is currently maintained by the group Project-II and provides a managerial report to the various managements .The project utilizes the ORACLE DBMS. 12. Railway crew management in India CMS is software which provides information regarding railway crew at all times. It provides information regarding the presence of crew at home station or at out station, maintains their status-wise records and assigns crew to trains. It also maintains information regarding the periodic and other rests, Road Learning & Traction knowledge. The software systems gives SMS alerts to management and supervisors in case the crew levels falls below alarm level likely to effect the train operations. It is capable of booking crew on Coaching, Shunting, Freight services in the form of Links and Rosters. The software system has tools to support the safety monitoring of the crew by it nominated Inspectors, monitoring of the crew knowledge through Quiz and has capacities to make the crew read the latest safety circulars put into the system for reading by the crew. 13. Control Office Application(COA) is a software which provides a solution for the rail traffic Controllers of each Division to manage the trains running over the track. This project is running in more than 30 of the 70 Control offices in the Indian Railways. The COA application is interfaced with other applications such as the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) to provide train running information to the passengers and other railway managers.

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14. E-Procurement system provides a secure, fair, and transparent method of procurement of material by the Railways through a web-based interface. This system is presently in operation in a few units of IR, and is to be expanded in the near future to all units of IR.the other modules are E-Auction etc. 15. SLAM - Software for Locomotive Asset Management is a software system under development at CRIS which shall cater for Locomotive Asset Management on Indian Railways. It is initially being developed for electrical Locomotives

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INFORMATION SYSTEMS CRIS designs, develops, implements and maintains large information systems for the Indian Railways. In addition, CRIS has developed, implemented, and maintained IT systems for other entities such as the Andaman and Nicobar administration (A & N Ship Ticketing system) as well. In recent years, the number of systems being handled by CRIS has grown rapidly. From the initial 3 projects, CRIS is presently handling over 14 large projects.

TERMINAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Terminal Management System (TMS) captures all commercial information relating to goods traffic from booking to delivery. ETMS (EXIM Terminal Management System) is a centralized computer system, designed and developed to suit the working of all EXIM terminals in India. In order to provide online information of containers to our customers, spread across the world, Web Interface of ETMS queries has been developed on webserver ‘www.ccilweb.com’. Through this interface, any customer can track and trace his containers online lying at any of CONCOR’s EXIM terminals at any point of time. Various Container related queries available right now under this interface are, 1. Container Details - Just by entering container number, one can find out present status of the container. 2. Shipping Line wise Inventory - Any registered shipping line can find out its inventory of Import / Export / Empty containers at any of the terminals online. 3. List of containers Arrived - One can find out the list of containers that have arrived at a terminal during any specific period.

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4. List of containers Departed - One can find out the list of containers that have departed from a terminal during any specific period. 5. Container Activity Record - This option provides history of a container specifying different activities that have been completed from arrival to departure. 6. Import Container Query - This query is specific to Import containers. 7. Export Container Query - This query is specific to export containers. 8. PDA Balance Enquiry - Customer can find out the available balance amount in his Predeposit Account at any of the terminals online. Accesses to ETMS Web Query - All customers registered are provided a unique user-id and password to access the queries through company’s website.

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FREIGHT OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM Using FOIS, the Railways have been able to reduce the turnaround time for freight wagons from 8 days to about 5.5 days. And, there has been a 10% jump in wagon-loading in the past three years without needing to add more wagons. Because the information is directly captured digitally and is fed into a relational database (Oracle), report can be generated used by operational and policy planners with whatever pivots they require. Indian Railways have decided not only to perform the traditional tasks of carrying passengers and goods efficiently, but also to change the mindset of working in a closed system. There has been a longstanding demand of the industry for transparency in sharing of information to give the customers an upto date business like environment. 1. Continuous cargo visibility has always been viewed as the most critical component of any physical distribution system. FOIS enables freight customers to have instant access to information regarding the current status of their consignments in transit, for just in time inventory. It is a system for management and control of freight movement that also assists managers to optimise asset utilisation. 2. FOIS comprises the Rake Management System (RMS) for handling the operating portion and Terminal Management System (TMS) pertaining to the commercial transactions. TMS has been installed at more than 300 locations and with the availability of infrastructure will cover all major handling points. As of June 2005, about 1500 reporting devices have been commissioned at more than 500 locations of Indian Railways. Railway owned digital microwave communication facilities complemented by channels hired from the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (BSNL) have been used to establish the network. The network is continuously being expanded to meet the growing demand. 3. FOIS has been designed to give strategic advantages to both Indian Railways and its customers. The implementation of the system is envisaged to eventually achieve the following:o

Extension of the current business practice of bulk movement in train load formation to piecemeal traffic to increase the market share by clubbing and moving together similar type of stock of "Hub & Spoke" arrangement.

16

o

Global tracking of consignments in real time whether in rakes or in individual wagons. The insight and pipeline of consignments would be seamlessly available for timely planning and just in time inventory management.

o

Facilitate acceptance of customer's orders, billing and cash accountal from identified nodal customer centres which, may not necessarily be the handling terminals. These facilities could even get extended to customer's premises and alongwith introduction of e-commerce benefit both by reducing the burden of logistics management.

4. The system as implemented upto now performs the following functions: o

Monitoring of all freight trains indicating their position in computerized teritory and their expected time of arrival at destination. Commodity wise flow of frieght trains for customers like Power Houses, Refineries, Feritlizers and Cement Plants, Steel Depots and Public Frieght Terminals enabling the recipients of consignments to have an accurate forecast of cargo arrivalsgiving them adequate time to complete preparatory arrangement to handle the cargo.

o

Out bound loaded rakes from the computerized territory are also monitored in the same manner

o

Full particulars of detachments from block rakes are recorded and updated eliminating chances of wagons getting unconnected or missing.

o

Details of rakes/Wagons in various yards, their phase-wise detention in different terminals, eliminating the need for costly manual documentation and tedious retrieval systems and inaccuracies.

o

Managerial reports regarding availability of rolling stock, i.e. wagons and locomotives at any instant of time to plan for their most efficient utilization.

o

With the use of the system there has been a visible reduction in the anxiety levels mental stress and confusion amongst railway customers and its operating staff. The voluminous and repetitive exchange of data on telephones round the clock has now been reduced and is gradually being replaced by minimum data input. The improved work environment has significantly simplified planning and execution of assigned tasks. 17

o

The system information is being used to club less than train load consignments from different loading stations. The words of appreciation from bulk customers who are being advised through e-mail the status of their consignments, is a clear indication that the anticipated benefits from FOIS have already begun to accrue to the customers. Interactive web based solutions to give customised reports to Railway Board, Zonal Railways and Divisions is in place

5. FOIS provides tremendous opportunities to both the Railways and their customers, to improve existing business practices and consequently reduce the operating costs while enhancing the quality of service. A full-fledged Domestic Terminal Management System for CONCOR is already in place. 6. E-Payment of Freight: A pilot project has been implemented for electronic payment of freight for coal booked for Badarpur Power House from collieries on ECR. Originating point intimates electronically the freight charges due to the bank (SBI). After receipt of "Successful Transaction" message - electronic confirmation from the bank of this transaction confirming the debit from BTPS account, RR is printed at the originating point. It is a synchronous transaction and reply is received within 150 seconds. The design conforms to the state of the art client server technology using middleware and a Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS). Application servers at the CRIS are networked and linked to a central database for global level transactions. The central database acts as the repository of all current and historical data. The application is interface-ready for web-based services like connectivity to customers and e-payment gateway interface. The hardware includes two Compaq/HP Alpha server ES-45, two Compaq/HP Alpha server DS20 having RA-8000 storage system (3.2 TB storage space) with DAT drives, 16 ports SAN switch, personal computers (Client/Console machines), printers, UPS, Routers, Dial up modems, Switches, VSAT etc. System software includes Oracle 9.2.0 RBDMS as backend on TRU-64 UNIX 5.1B PK4 cluster platform with BEA Tuxedo 8.1 as middleware and Visual Basic as presentation layer, Pro-C as front end, PL-SQL for business logics and XML for MIS reports. The FOIS network plan utilises a mix of the available terrestrial network of IR, leased

BSNL

lines

and

a

satellite

network

(V-SAT)

to

ensure

reliability.

18

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PASSENGER RESERVATION SYSTEMS

CONCERT Country-wide Network for Computerized Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing - developed by CRIS, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi, is a total networking solution to Indian Railways Passenger Reservation System. PRS on the web -Passenger Reservation Systems Seat Availability / PNR / Journey Planner / Fare / Time Table enquiries and e-Reservation of tickets are available on the internet. UTS Unreserved Ticketing System It is a complete solution for the total networked unreserved ticketing to the Indian Railways...... Season Ticketing Project (STEAM) - This software caters to the ticketing requirements of suburban trains at Mumbai, (the lifeline of Mumbai). NTES/NTES on WEB National Train Enquiry System is a reliable centralized information system, which provides up-to-date and accurate information to the passengers...... Complaint System This software is primarily meant for the Indian Railways to record and maintain the complaint/deficiency registered at station, division, zonal or at railway board level. Passenger Coaching Refunds System - Computerisation of passenger coaching refund Integrating ATM with reservation/enquiry system - A number of Banks in India shall be issuing Reserved and Unreserved Tickets through their ATMs under an arrangement with zonal Railways. Data Warehousing

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A data warehouse can be directly used by decision-makers to do any kind of queries. It also provide fast output with historical perspective which helps them to do better decisions hence gain a competitive edge in Market, increase profits and provide better customer satisfaction.

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Indian Railway’s current CONCERT application represents a steady progression of using the latest technologies available. In the mid-1980s, Indian Railways first computerized its reserved ticketing operation on VAX™ systems running VMS™. This was done from five regional passenger reservation centres, each of which was a stand-alone site with its own local database. During the mid- to late 1990s, CRIS introduced CONCERT, which linked the five passenger reservation centres so that reserved tickets from any station of Indian Railways could be issued to any other station from a single window. CONCERT Passenger Reservation System: Eight AlphaServer ES40 systems and nine AlphaServer DS20E systems with five StorageWorks RA8000, RA7000 and RA3000 systems by HP running OpenVMS, Reliable Transaction Router, DEC ‘C’, FORTRAN Passenger-related information Web system: One AlphaServer DS10 and one AlphaServer DS1200 for Web servers,two AlphaServer DS20E

application

servers

running

OpenVMS.

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UNRESERVED TICKETING SYSTEM

Unreserved ticketing constitutes major component of the overall ticketing in Indian Railways. It contributes a large amount of earning for Indian Railways. UTS is the complete solution to provide computerized unreserved tickets to railway passengers from dedicated counter terminals, hand held terminals, smart card, automatic vending machines etc. The backend architecture is 3 tiered. The 4th tier will consist of ticketing terminals (dump, Win terms), ATM m/c, Hand held terminals. UTS Application is divide into two part front-end and back-end. Frontend is developed using C++ on UNIX platform. And the backend is Sybase, which is used to store information generated at, front-end and supply input value. Application is divide into modules like ticketing subsystem, fare and UDM & TDM. Communication Interfaces Connectivity between Station servers and Zonal servers as well as between Zonal server and Central server is over WAN. Terminal connectivity is over LAN. TCP/IP is used as network protocol. Preferably, PRS work augmentation or RAIL Tel is going to provide Bandwidth. The Station server is connected to Zonal server by 64 kbps line. For Inter Zone connectivity existing PRS channels would be used. Sanctioned as a pilot project by the Ministry of Railway, this project is planned to be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, 10 stations of Delhi area are provided with booking terminals. In the second phase 13 other stations of Delhi area are provided with booking terminals on 2nd October, 2002. The project will give the following benefits: •

Computerised unreserved ticket from a predefined cluster of location to any station over entire Indian Railways.

•

Computerised Tickets for MST/QST & platform tickets

•

Across the counter cancellation of tickets

•

Correct account of the tickets issued with respect of fare applicable including other charges if any 23

•

Elimination of manipulations and malpractices by providing secure access using access control card.

•

Printers with more secure features like MICR reader. For any pair of originating and destination point for a particular class and index number will be printed on ticket so that the ticket issued and ticket collected can be linked.

•

The bar code on basis of a bogie will be generated and printed on ticket and at collection centres a bar code reader can check the genuineness of the ticket provide for stock inventory control.

Employing cutting-edge Sybase technology, the Unreserved Ticketing System delivers nonstop ticketing at remote locations, easy embedding of the ticketing application to Disk-OnChip, eliminates the possibility of fraud, is an extremely cost-effective solution for regions with limited or poor connectivity, reduces passenger lines and crowds at booking offices and stations, and improves the customer experience. With UTS, the dramatic increase in railway traffic in recent years has been accommodated effortlessly with no additional personnel.

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NATIONAL TRAIN ENQUIRY SYSTEM

National Train Enquiry System (NTES) is a centralized information system that provides upto-date and accurate information to passengers regarding arrival/ departure of passenger trains including expected time of arrival (ETA) of trains. This information is made available through display boards, interactive voice response system, public address system, face-toface enquiry, CCTV and Internet (www.trainenquiry.com). The project has been working successfully since 1998. The software has networked all 5 servers running the NTES application. It now runs on Alpha server machine and under UNIX using Sybase as the RDBMS. IR has to provide the following information to passengers: • Arrival and departure of passenger trains • Platform berthing of passenger trains • Facilities available at various stations (e.g. retiring rooms) • Railway Rules The above information is made available to the public through: • Display Boards • Interactive Voice Response System (telephone enquiry) • Automatic Announcement System • Face to Face Enquiry counters • TV display The above information is available at: • Arrival Departure Information - Control Offices • Platform Berthing - Stations • Other Data - Designated Database Operators 25

The NTES application consists of four layers and three other functions namely 1. RDBMS 2. SERVERS 3. CLIENTS/APPLICATION GATEWAYS 4. EXTERNAL AGENTS 5. Database Administration 6. Application Management & Console Operations 7. Reports & MIS RDBMS • Control all database updates and queries. • Application logic resides in RDBMS in form of triggers and stored procedures. • Direct access to RDBMS will be only to 2, 5 and 7. SERVERS • Handle client requests • Multiplex database sessions • No application logic will be coded in the servers. • Populate the results of SQL into data structures used by the client. • For services provided by the server a request function has been written. These functions form the part of the SERVER API • The SERVER API has been designed such that: • The client is able to use the service without knowing any TP monitor data structures. • It is possible for client to directly access all services without any change in code.

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CLIENTS These have been defined as of two types • Interactive • Application gateways The interactive client runs on a dumb terminal based client and is used by users directly connected to NTES server. An application gateway uses the External Interface Server API and gives a set of services to clients who reside outside the NTES server and are connected to it. These are of two types: • TCP/IP gateways e.g. for Web • Serial gateways e.g. for IVRS EXTERNAL AGENTS These reside outside the NTES server and use the External Interface Client API for accessing NTES services. These agents are free to access cache data in their local database. Services are provided for bulk transfer of data for local storage in the External Interface API.

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INTEGRATED COACHING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

This system is fully computerized linking it directly to movement of passenger trains. The new system has registered an overall improvement in punctuality of mail and Express trains. During the past six months, it has improved punctuality rate of trains by about 10 to 15 per cent bringing it to 90 to 95 per cent punctuality level. Under the ICMS facility, movement of each passenger train is automatically monitored on the computer screens at the divisional control room. The system is so sensitive that even a minute’s delay in movement of passenger train is directly flashed on the monitoring screen enabling the railway employees manning the control room to monitor train movements round-the-clock giving priority to safety measures.

Punctuality Module In the first module of this project, the punctuality of trains has been addressed and is called as Punctuality Module. This module was implemented in Feb.’ 2004.This is running on PRS/NTES network and is on the same hardware of NTES. This module captures the delays involved in train running at interchange points and detention causes for the delays at the divisional level. Zonal client does the responsibility fixing. Based on this input reports are generated for traffic managers. Zonal client does the responsibility fixing. Based on this following types of reports are generated for traffic managers •

Railway Punctuality Performance for a date for a Division

•

Movement of Trains Division wise in a Zone

•

Punctuality percentage of Mail/Express

•

Cause wise/Gauge Wise breakup of Lost Trains between dates

•

Division wise analysis of Cause of Lost Trains on Date in a Zone

•

Railway Punctuality performance for a date in a Zone

•

Cause wise breakup of Trains lost in a period 28

•

Summary of Monitored trains daily Run and Lost

•

Section wise/Cause wise analysis for all trains on a date

•

Zone wise/Cause wise analysis for all trains on a date etc

This module will be migrated to the same platform on which Coaching Stock Module will reside to give user friendly browser based forms and reports. This module has been developed on the new platform and is under lab testing.

Coaching Stock Module

This is a web based application and runs on intranet (FOIS network). This module captures all the events done on Coaches during operations (e.g. Attach/Detach/Sick Marking/Made Fit etc) to generate an on line position of Coaching Stock. As all locations are networked and a centralized database is available, this utility tool is specially designed for traffic managers. Some basic features: •

To monitor the condition and location, status and history of the coaching stock.

•

To monitor the coaching rakes, their locations, arrival – departure.

•

To generate stock reports

•

To find Coaches in Foreign Railways

•

To plan special trains

•

To provide data for planning and rescheduling of rakes.

•

To optimize utilization of each coach and timely maintenance (POH) and repairs.

•

For prompt planning for idle coaches and their timely bookings and usage to generate more revenue for the railways. 29

•

Through mailing and messaging end users may communicate.

Coaching Maintenance Module

This module is in the stage of requirement analysis. The implementation will start by 1st March.’2011.This module will capture the depot activities related to coaching maintenance operations, this will be a utility tool for mechanical managers to help them in planning of schedules. This will capture broadly following functionalities. •

Platform and enroute attention module

•

Enroute rolling in and rolling out

•

Brake Power Check, Train watering, Gang booking

•

Washing line and sick line Placement Module including Pit line occupation status, placement advice, Rake fitness and withdrawal advice etc.

•

Depot Maintenance activities including all types of component based maintenance.

•

Material Management which will include Depot stores management, indent flow etc.

•

Staff Module to include muster roll preparation, staff skill development etc.

•

Functional modules for superior management(Divisional, Zonal and Railway Board)

This module will be having a tight integration with Coaching Stock Module and handshake will be done in various events.

Time Tabling Module •

To maintain a centralized database for all trains of Indian Railways with following attributes.

•

Train Definition, Validity period of the train definition, Days of Run, Train Profile, Train Schedule (List of stations with timings) etc.

30

•

Giving facility to update the time table through browser based application by all zonal railways at the time of time tabling and providing soft copy for printing of IR Time table.

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MATERIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Software profile MMIS is an integrated Computerized System for Stores Department of Indian Railways and has been developed using centralized system architecture using J2EE Open Source Environment. This is planned to be implemented on Zonal Data Centres of IR to cater the entire requirement of that Zonal Railways and will primarily consists of the following modules Purchase Module: This module caters to the demands sent by various depots and generation of Purchase Order by covering functions like procurement of material, registering indent as a demand, floating of inquiries, receiving of offers, tabulation of offers, placement of orders and post purchase order monitoring. Finance Module: The Finance Module will be the basic module of the Material Management system, since each and every module is related to it at any given point of time. It comprises the various functions and responsibility of Stores Accounts Branch (SAB). Depot Module: Depots are warehouse units where the stocking of material regularly needed by Railways is being performed and therefore the module will provide the functionalities for different sections of depot like: ¨ Yard ¨ Receiving Section ¨ Ledger Section ¨ Stocking Ward ¨ Manufacturing unit if any(Uniform) ¨ PL Unit ¨ General Section. Sales and Auction Module: Sales and auction module is related with scrap disposals. The condemn material which is of no use in future is sold through Auction, Tender, Direct sale, Staff sale. Uniforms Module: Uniforms fabrication for Railways is related with functionalities like contract for fabrication of uniforms, tailoring of uniforms.

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Where Implemented Under Implementation on East Coastal Railway of IR. Target Users All Zonal Headquarters and Production Units of IR. System Platform Hardware Intel XEON/RISC Server Desktop PCs as client. System Software UNIX/LINUX/Win 2003 Server as OS on Server WebSphere Application Server Back end(RDBMS) - Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition Clients with Internet Browser can acces the apllication.

E WORKING SYSTEM (ELECTRONIC FILE MOVEMENT & TRACKING)

Software Profile E - WORKING SYSTEM is a web-based application that provides for automation of the functions of all the departments / offices. It provides an effective electronic office management system that encompasses diverse business requirements like File Management, Document Management, and Knowledge Management. It provides a user-friendly intuitive interface for the users to accomplish the various tasks. Key Features For File Movement and Tracking •

Integration with a scanning solution for scanning of documents, adding remarks and filing into electronic files.

•

Creation, Movement and Tracking of electronic files.

•

Provision to add noting to file.

•

Support for confidential documents.

•

An inbox for each user containing his pending tasks.

•

Alerts and Reminders for overdue tasks for a user.

•

Secret Code protected critical functions like sanction etc.

•

File Viewer and Document Viewer. 33

•

Role based access to all the functionalities.

Interdepartmental Processes The system provides electronic form based processing for the following processes. All these processes interface with external systems like PRIME, AFRES and MMIS. Leave on Average Pay - helps an employee request for leave on average pay and keep track of earned leave Travel Allowance Bill - helps an employee request clearance of Travel allowance bills Provident Fund advance - helps an employee request an advance on his provident fund. Indent (Non Stock) - helps in generating a request for non-stock materials that are not available in sufficient quantity Tender Committee proceedings - helps in processing tender bid received in response to a tender floated. Where Implemented E working system is currently being implemented at SECR Railways (Bilaspur). Target Users E working system is currently being implemented at SECR Railways (Bilaspur). System Hardware DB2 CM Server - Dual Processor Intel Xeon / AMD Opteron 246 or higher.8 GB RAM, 2 x 73.1 GB HDD with RAID 5 Lotus Domino Server - Dual Processor Intel Xeon / AMD Opteron 246 or higher, 4 GB RAM, 2 x 73.1 GB HDD with RAID System Software Lotus Domino Enterprise server, DB2 Content Manager, Lotus Designer and Rational Suite for the managing Project documents and Source Code.

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MATERIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MMS) FOR P-WAY MATERIALS

Software profile: This package is designed in client server environment specifically for the requirements of Civil Engineering department of Indian Railways. It helps the user in managing stores account for P-Way materials. Special emphasis has been given on scrap disposal. This software works at two levels of organizational structure i.e. PWI level and Division level. PWI level incorporates all the activities conducted by the PWIs during their normal course of working. These activities include: Requisition Notes, Issuing Notes, Advice Notes etc. Scrap Handling Module to dispose-off the materials that lays surplus and are of no use. The software when used at second level (the Divisional level) facilitates the user at divisional headquarters to monitor the materials available with the PWIs. Further, the divisional user can generate some extensive reports to monitor the activities of PWIs in the field. Where Implemented: 67divisions of Indian Railways Target Users: Railway corporations and Government Departments

System Platform Hardware: Intel Server Desktop PCs as client. Remote Access Server (RAS) for remote connectivity.

System Software: UNIXWARE as Operating System on Server. Windows 2000/ XP as OS on Clients 35

Back end - Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition Front end - Developer 2000 (6i)

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CREW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CREW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS) Indian Railways has decided to introduce computerized crew booking at the crew lobbies. Based on the demand form the users CRIS has developed Crew Management system (CMS) which not only to perform the traditional tasks of booking crew on all types of trains but also brings in, transparency of information sharing, cost optimization and keeps its users up to date for taking effective business decisions. 1. Continuous visibility has always been viewed as the most critical component of any physical distribution system. CMS enables it’s users to have instant access to information regarding the current status of crew at all times and maintain their inventory at all times. It is a system for management and control of crew movement that also assists managers to optimise asset utilization. 2. CMS is not only confined to freight services but has all the components needed at any crew booking point, namely shunting and Coaching services. It has also elements which make a lobby more or less paper less namely display of Circular, Caution, quiz for knowledge improvement of crew and crew self-services. Loco inspectors can also monitor their drivers for and evaluate their performance. 3. The software has capabilities to be customized for each lobby giving flexibility to end user as and at the same time integrating all the lobbies together. It has a powerful SMS module to support the user in terms of crew booking through SMS, morning position, crew shortage alerts, crew personnel information, crew milage, crew status and many more functionalities 4. As on March 2008, about 700 data entry nodes, over 300 crew interaction KIOSKs have been commissioned at over 110 lobbies spread on CR, WR, NR, WCR, NCR, SCR and NWR. Work has been started on SR and SCR now and it is targeted to cover entire I.R. by Sep 2008. As in March 2008 over 5000 crew are being booked through the CMS system daily on freight, coaching and shunting services. 5. CMS is an in-house development which has been designed by dedicated team of CRIS to give strategic advantages to both Indian Railways as follows:37

o

Global tracking of crew of all the crew on the CMS system in real time whether the crew is on train, rest at HQ, rest at outstation, on leave and their seamless integration with the CMS application so as to enable user to derive benefit of crew accountal at all time and enable its user to cut down running cost with the help of built in business logics of the CMS system.

o

CMS has WEB enable reports which are available to all the FOIS network users. The reports are transparent to all its users and enabling the business decision makers to access these reports at all times and take business decisions based

on

the

transparently

available

statically

information.

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FUTURE PLANS In the past, Indian Railways has adopted the route of technology transfer in several areas such as electrification, signaling, manufacturing of locomotives and components, construction and maintenance of track. It has successfully adapted these technologies to Indian conditions and trained its workforce to use the technology effectively. It has also innovated in respect of several areas of asset maintenance, freight rolling stock and information technology, but IR has generally been a late adopter of the leads and strides made in technology. This would be achieved by fostering close linkage between RDSO, functional levels of railway administration and intellectual resources at premier technology institutes like IIT and NITs and research laboratories of CSIR and DRDO along with targeted investments in R&D. IT tools will continue to underpin Railway's efforts to enhance customer satisfaction, maximize productivity of assets and improve governance. Priorities would include improving the interface with and providing real-time information to citizens, freight customers and passengers on various devices including mobile phones using satellite-based in train tracking systems, introduction of paper less mobile ticketing systems and Enterprise Management System to improve productivity and efficiency. All IT facilities and platforms will be integrated through intelligent and inter-operable systems to enable IR to respond with speed to customer's needs, business opportunities and external challenges. For this purpose it will be ensured that: All areas of infrastructure management will provide automated information systems.  Introduction of devices for all monitoring systems have to comply with providing automated data to Management Information System.  Event capturing for business related applications having customer interface will be automated through use of intelligent devices integrated with the applications.  Decision Support Systems will be provided in all critical areas of infrastructure management

for

conducting

business.

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REFERENCES •

IT AUDIT REPORT OF INDIAN RAILWAYS 2009

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INDIAN RAILWAYS BUDGET 2010

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NORTHERN RAILWAY TRAINING MANUAL

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http://www.sybase.com/files/Success_Stories/Indian-Railway-050409-SS.pdf (LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)

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http://customers.redhat.com/2010/05/06/irctc-relies-on-red-hat/ (LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)

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http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/portfolio/customer-successes/successstories/high-reliability-communications-support-indian-railways (LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)

•

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/brochures/indiarr/indiarr.pdf (LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)

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