<div><em><strong>Hemant Joshi</strong> on how Indian railways has helped develop Indian economy</em><br><br>Transportation and communications have been the stepping stones for the economic growth of any civilization. These are two key elements which help in integrating the domestic market efficiently and also responsible for global competitiveness. They together play a significant role in integrating remote regions of a country to economic mainstream, connecting buyers and sellers and human resources to employers.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Indian Railways:</strong></div><div>Indian railway network is the fourth longest network in the world with an operating route length of more than 65,000 km followed by the US, Russia and China. With 1.4 million employees, it is world’s 8th largest and India’s biggest employer. It is the backbone of country’s physical network with its connectivity to rural and remote parts of the country. Almost 13 million passengers rely on the railways everyday while 1.3 million tonnes of freight is being carried by them daily. </div><div> </div><div>Since its inception in the year 1844, Indian Railway has seen many ups and downs in the last 160 years. The Indian railway has been criticized for its inadequate service offerings, inefficiency, lack of modernization, untimely delivery of services and uncleanness. There are many challenges which need significant technology presence for efficient and user friendly operations. Ticket booking, passenger grievance, payment gateways, and availability of trains need massive improvements for better service delivery.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Digital facelift of railways:</strong></div><div>The Indian government has taken critical steps that helped in transforming the Indian railways and giving it a digital facelift. Railway Budget 2015-16 focuses on transforming the Indian Railways in the next four years by using information and communications technology (ICT). For transformation, Indian Railways is planning to invest INR 856,020 crore by 2019 for network decongestion, network expansion, national projects, safety, information technology, rolling stock, passenger amenities, high speed rail and station redevelopment. Out of this allocation, INR 5000 crore will be used for development of ICT infrastructure for grievance redressal, ticketing, passenger convenience, passenger safety and internal working of Indian Railways. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Online Portal & Ticketing</strong>: Almost 54% of railway tickets in the country are booked by using the IRCTC online ticketing portal. The average daily sale of train tickets through the portal, which is the world’s second busiest with 3 crore registered users, is around 5.5 to 6 lakh. Recently IRCTC has upgraded its website by introducing two high-capacity servers that have doubled peak-time efficiency. The booking capacity per minute has doubled from the existing 7200 tickets per minute to almost 14,800 tickets per minute. IRCTC is also planning to increase its network bandwidth from the existing 1.4 GB to 1.7 GB in order to enhance the performance of e-ticketing operations. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Paperless Ticket</strong>: Indian Railways is also planning to install automatic ticket vending machines where ticket can be booked using smart cards and currency options. The Traveling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) will be provided with hand-held terminals, which can be used for verification of passengers and downloading charts. As per the plans, Passenger Reservation System (PRS) tickets which are purchased on the counters will go paperless and SMS on mobiles will be a valid proof of ticket for PRS passengers. Focus is on moving towards paperless ticketing and charting and expediting finalization of refund claims.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Grievance Redressal</strong>: Passengers can now call all India number 138, which is a 24*7 helpline number for grievances even while travelling. The problems of the passengers will be attended on a real-time basis. A mobile application to redress railway-related complaints is being developed addressing real-time problems of passengers and recording feedback on customer experience. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Wi-Fi for Passengers: </strong>As part of the Digital India project, Indian Railways is already providing Wi-Fi connectivity at A1 and A category stations and will be extended to B category stations soon. In the last railway budget 400 stations get the approval of Wi-Fi.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Passenger Convenience & Safety</strong>: The proposed integrated customer portal will be a single interface for the customers to access various services such as booking retiring rooms, wheelchairs, etc. SMS alert facility will inform passengers about the changes in train schedule and arrival/ departure time in advance. </div><div> </div><div>The toll-free number 182 is dedicated to receive security related complaints from women. Surveillance cameras will be provided on a pilot basis in some mainline coaches and in ladies compartment of suburban coaches without compromising on the privacy.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Digital Billboards:</strong> The centrally managed Railway Display Network will be introduced in over 2,000 stations in next two years. This will aid in providing information on train arrival/departure, reservations, general and emergency messages and also any other information of interest to citizens. These digital displays will facilitate advertising and promote various governance campaigns.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Freight Management:</strong> Customer friendly freight movement initiatives will be undertaken. They are mainly: </div><div>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Introduction of bar coded/RFID tracking of parcels and freight wagons</div><div>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Automated warehouses</div><div>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Customer relationship management system</div><div>•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Integration of train control and asset management applications</div><div> </div><div><strong>The way ahead:</strong></div><div>Although a lot is being done to modernise the railways, still India is far behind other nations in providing a compelling travelling experience and using green technologies.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Bullet Trains:</strong> Japan and Germany are using the Bullet Train technology efficiently. Europe is considering a continent-wide High Speed Railway (HSR) freight network to alleviate airport congestion, the rising price of fuel, and environmental concerns. Japan has also made its HSR services more efficient by introducing double-decker carriages to carry freight. Computerised control of train switches and speed has allowed Japan to maximise the number of trains running at any given time on a track, thereby also lowering costs. </div><div> </div><div>India has started the bullet train project in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor which will cost around Rs 100,000 crore and it will reduce the current 8 hours journey of 534 kms to just 2 hours. The interim report estimates that around 40,000 people will use this corridor daily in 2023. Though people can pay a premium price to enjoy air travel but with such large population, bullet trains can reduce Airport Congestion in India. Each train would be able to carry the load of seven Boeing 737 planes. Apart from high speed travel it will help in freight transportation like courier mail services, perishables, or other items. It will also generate massive employment opportunity in the country.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Green Energy:</strong> Indian Railway is estimated to spend around Rs 35,000 crore on fuel (INR 11,000 crore on electricity and INR 24,000 crore on diesel) this year. Dutch electric trains are transforming their energy sources to alternative green energy. 50% of the trains already run on wind power while the target is to move to 100% by 2018. India has started experiments on solar powered trains. Currently, railways is harnessing wind and solar energy from its 10.5 MW capacity wind mill plant and solar Photo Voltaic (PV) modules of about 7 MW capacity at about 500 railway stations, about 4000 level crossing gates and solar-based water heating systems at training institutes, retiring rooms.</div><div> </div><div>The railways need to be modernised by leveraging on the success of telecom in a vast country like India. Using the power of technology and telecom, railways can serve the common man by making train travel a better experience than other means. </div><div> </div><div>It is heartening to know that the former president of NASSCOM will assist in the drafting of the IT Vision for the Indian Railways. </div><div> </div><div><em>The author, Hemant Joshi, is Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP.</em></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>
