MIS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING IN INDIAN RAILWAY

PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TOWARDS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

(Approved by AICTE, Govt. of India) (Equivalent to MBA) ACADEMIC SESSION 2007-09 Under the Guidance of:
Miss Anegha Shukre Faculty of MIS IMS GHAZIABAD

Submitted By:
Aditya kumar(10) Amandeep gaur(14) Amit kumar(16) Ankit kumar(23) Anoop kumar singh(30) Ashish mishra(42) Bheeshm Bhardwaj(47) Deepak varshney(52) Devesh varshney(55) Aradhna Singh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
A single person alone can never be credited for performing any extraordinary work successfully. It is only possible with the continuous and constant help and guidance that they receive from others and team members. With due respect and regards we wish to express our deep sense of gratitude, indebtedness and sincere phrases of thanks to Miss. Anegha Shukrae, for her invaluable mentoring and exuberant guidance. We are highly obliged by the constant support that we have got from my faculty in the project .Starting from the initial stages to the end stages we have received continuous feedback with regard to the progress of the project. Finally we would say that this project has helped discover ourself. we could decipher that we had talents unknown to ourself. Thank you, once again.

Aditya kumar(10) Amandeep gaur(14) Amit kumar(16) Ankit kumar(23) Anoop kumar singh(30) Ashish mishra(42) Bheeshm Bhardwaj(47) Deepak varshney(52) Devesh varshney(55) Aradhana singh

TO WHOM SOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that we student of PGDBM (Full Time) 2007-2009 batch, IMS Ghaziabad, has done his project under my supervision and guidance. During his project he was found to be very sincere and attentive to small details whatsoever was told to him.

I wish him good luck and success in his future

Miss. Anegha Shukrae Faculty of MIS IMS Ghaziabad

MIS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES

The application development for the MIS for the Civil Engineering activities are taken up in 2 parts one at CR and the other at NR RAILWAYWISE SCOPE OF DEVELOPMENT Central Railway Buildings and Other structures Contract Management ** Northern Railway Track and Bridges Land and Planning

** Contract Management module will be taken up by Central Railway as part of customisation of the Integrated Project Managemnent System (IPMS) being developed by CAO/Construction, Southern Railway.

PART I CENTRAL RAILWAY

INTRODUCTION A comprehensive Management Information System pertaining to Buildings and Other Structures for Engineering Department has been developed as a pilot project on Central Railway. The Application is being implemented on IOW(Jr.Engg.) / Byculla of Mumbai Division and is under testing. The Application is also ready for implementation on other sites of IOWs of Mumbai Division. While developing the application, the input data has been designed based on various formats prevalent in Depots, Divisions and Hqs so as to generate reports for Division, Hqs and Railway Board. MAIN OBJECTIVE AND FEATURES OF THE APPLICATION: Stream lines the procedure of data collection. Capture data at the point of origin, i.e. at the Supervisor location.

Maintain the centralized data base at Divisional as well as Head Quarters level. Generate information for efficient management at various levels. Provide on-line availability of up-to-date information at various levels. Assess cost of each activity to arrive at optimum solutions. Assist in moving towards paper-less or at least less-paper office.

BUILDINGS AND OTHER STRUCTURES MODULES OF CENTRAL RAILWAY: 1. ASSET MANAGEMENT To capture details of various Assets like Residential Buildings, Service Buildings, Platforms, Bridges, Washing Sidings, Water Supply, Drainage System, Roads & Pathways, Boundary Wall etc. under the control of IOW-in-charge. This information will help the administration to consolidate the information at sub-divisional, divisional and HQ levels. Details of Action Plan for activity-wise major repairs to Staff Quarters and expenditure incurred on a day-to-day basis can be recorded and reports generated. This will also help in planning and monitoring the various repairs by seeing the past history of the structures. 2. MAINTENANCE AND MONITORING OF SANCTIONED WORKS This will provide details of expenditure incurred on zonal contracts, revenue special contracts on a yearly basis. There is a provision to maintain expenditure towards wages, materials, contracts and other activities on a periodic basis. There is a monthly report bringing out the details of quarters attended by the Directed Building Maintenance of buildings. Report can be generated relating to progress of various works with present status, target date of completion and activity-wise expenditure at divisional, HQ levels for taking administrative decisions.

3. COMPLAINTS This module assists in computerizing the recording, monitoring and redressal of complaints and in standardizing the information for proper consolidation and reporting. The basic objective is to minimize duplication of work. This will help in monitoring the efforts required on a monthly basis for all the complaints received and attended, along with the details of labour and material cost involved. This will also highlight the time taken for attending complaints category-wise - which is expected to assist in optimising time and effort. 4. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT The various stocks and non-stock items received and issued by the IOW depots including generation of requisition and issue notes. The Material-at-Site (MAS) position can be obtained on-line to take administration decisions for procurement / transfer of materials. It is proposed to interface this Inventory Management module with the Material Management Information System, at a later stage..

5. INSPECTION SCHEDULE / REPORT This module provides for inspection schedules as laid down at different levels for inspection of the various assets pertaining to IOWs.(Jr. Engg.) Provision has been made in this module for capture of details of inspections done against each of the items of the schedule. It also captures the expenditure incurred as a result of defects observed during inspection and action taken thereafter.

PART II NORTHERN RAILWAY

The MIS application allotted to Northern Railway are being implemented in Delhi area of Delhi Division and Northern Railway Headquarter. After successful implementation these are to be ported to other Divisions and Railways.

FUNCTIONALITY OF APPLICATION Track Modules : The application has been designed to work as a centralised
application and all the sub modules are integrated with each other. However, one of the sub-modules of asset management is the fundamental module, the data of which are being utilized by the other sub-modules in running their applications. Entries in the application are to be made by PWIs from field, Engg control and PWI/Plg from division.

Bridges Modules: This application is to be implemented in the offices of

IOWs, PWIs, BRIs, AENs, ABEs, Dy CBE/line, Division and HQ. The application is predominantly centralised except that BRIs will have their own database, which will update the central server in batch mode.

Land and Planning Modules: This application also has a Centralised

database and is designed for use by IOWs, PWIs, Divisional and Hqs land cells.

HARDWARE:

Availablity of PCs in the offices of PWIs, IOWs, BRIs, AENs and also in divisional and HQs offices atleast to a limited extent is crucial for implementation of the various modules of all the MIS applications - Track, Bridges, Land and planning. However it is not necessary to provide separate PCs for diffferent applications. It will be possible to run the different applications from the same PC. For example one PC with PWI-in-charge will be sufficient for running all four application

CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS (CRIS)

In 1982, Government conceived a project for analyzing a Freight Operations Information Systems (FOIS) with Railways Subsequently in 1986, Ministry of Railways established the CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS (CRIS), Chanakya Puri, New Delhi - 21 to be an umbrella organization for all computer activities on Indian Railways (IR).They also entrusted it with the task of design, development and implementation of the FOIS, along with its associated communications infrastructure. The Centre started functioning from July, 1987.It is a registered society having an autonomous status and headed by Managing Director .CRIS is mainly a project oriented organization engaged in development of major computer systems on the Railways. Our presence across the country gives us global reach and a vast rollout support capability. Together with our formidable team of high-caliber software professionals we have successfully positioned ourselves at the vanguard of the global IT service s revolution. With such a rich practical experience, a dedicated team of professionals and its own R&D effort, CRIS aims to be a leader in this fast developing field. CRIS provides consulting and IT services to Indian Railways - as partners to conceptualize and realize technology driven business transformation initiatives. With over 200 employees nationwide, we use a low-risk Delivery Model to accelerate schedules with a high degree of time and cost predictability. We provide solutions for a dynamic environment where business and technology strategies converge. Our approach focuses on new ways of business combining IT innovation and adoption while also leveraging an organization's current IT assets. We work with Indian Railways to build new products or services and to implement prudent business and technology strategies in today's dynamic digital environment.

The railways were introduced in the country in 1853 by the British almost immediately after it appeared in England. From a modest beginning of 53 kms between Mumbai and Thane, the railways have made a long journey and emerged as the principal mode of transport in the country. After Independence, the railways of the country were totally integrated and brought under the unified management of the Railway Board. Today, the Indian Railways (IR) has a network spread over 63,000 route kms. and 7000 stations throughout the length and breadth of the country. It carries 12 million passengers and more than 1.2 million tonnes of freight daily, accounting roughly for 40 per cent of the freight and 2- per cent of the passenger traffic in the country. These figures, however, mask the true significance of IRs role in the Indian economy which is crucially dependent on it for transport requirements of the core sectors, longdistance travel of the people from one far corner of the country to another and suburban travel. IR also accounts for 8.5 per cent of the organised employment of the country either directly or indirectly. In line with the massive growth of population and the pressure generated by economic growth, Indian Railways has had to deal with mountry demands in the face of declining resources to build adequate capacity. It has acquitted itself creditably. Transport output of both passenger and freight traffic in terms of net tonne/passenger kilometre has increased six-fold since Independence with only marginal addition to route kilometre and rolling stock. The Indian Railways has also been continuously upgrading its systems to work out appropriate technological and managerial solutions for the problems peculiar to our country. In the midst of these challenges the Indian Railways has managed to earn an operating surplus year after year a rare feat considering that most of the railway systems elesewhere both in the developed and developing country have failed to keep themselves above water. If one has to list our all the achievements of the Indian Railways in terms of growth of physical output or improvements in efficiency indices, which are impressive by any reckoning, or its response to natural calamities as a national carrier and its role as an agent of socio-economic development, it will run into several pages. However some of the

achievements stand out for their sheet impact in strengthening the nation and improving the lives of the citizens. The partition that followed Independence had traumatic consequences for the railway systems of the North-East. The pre-partition railways had linked the North-East and the present-day Bangladesh as an organic whole. Partition resulted in complete severance of this logical link. The truncated network of the North-East stood woefully incomplete and unconnected. The Indian Railways addressed this problem immediately and in right earnest. The Assam Rail Link project was completed in 1950 providing a meter gauge (MG) rail link to Assam. But the journey involved transhipment and ferry crossing both for passengers and for freight. The broad gauge (BG) link was extended in phases to Guwahati between 1965 and 1985. Two massive bridges on the mighty Branhmaputra at Kamakhya and Jogighopa and later extension of a BG link up to Dibrugarh and Lekhapani finally made it possible to travel to the North-East undisturbed. The North-east has now been truly integrated with the rest of the country. The Indian Railways continues to accord high priority to the area. A programme has been chalked out to remove the few remaining bottlenecks by doubling/gauge conversion of the existing metre gauge route, Katihar New Jalpaiguri Guwahati, and providing connection to the seven sistem States. COMFORTABLE TRAVEL At the time of Independence passengers on the Indian Railways could avail of three classes in all the trains, namely, I class, II class and III class. The berths in the 2nd and 3rd classes consisted of wooden bunkers. There was no concept of advance reservation. If a passenger who travelled in the 50s and did not travel in the intervening period were to take a train ride today, he will be amazed by the cumulative improvements brought about in this area. The concept of reservation for the first class and later for the second class was introduced with no or little addition to the fares. During the 70s the thrid class was abolished altogether and the berths in the second class (including third class upgraded as second class) were cushioned. The Integral Coach Factory at Perambur (Tamilnadu) and the newly

set up Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab significantly contributed to the redesigning of second class and sleeper coaches for better passenger comfort. These two coach factories also helped the Indian Railways introduce AC2 tier/AC 3 tier and AC Chair Car on virtually all trains throughout the country to enable passengers to travel in comfort at an affordable cost. AC 2-tier was introduced as a replacement for 1st class because of its larger capacity and better comfort in terms of insulation from noise, heat and dust. However, since the fare for AC 2-tier was beyond the reach of many passengers, the Indian Railways introduced AC 3 tier, to bring air-conditioned travel without the reach of the masses. Similar considerations dictated the introduction of AC Chair Car. The Indian Railways started introducing the prestigious Rajdhani and Shatabdi services during the 70s and 80s respectively or to match the best in the world. The Rajdhanis connect various state capitals to Delhi while the Shatabdis provide superfast services between the major cities of the country. These trains have not only broken the speed barriers of 100 kmph by routinely attaining speeds of 130 kmph but they have also set up new standards in catering and onboard services. TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS The Indian Railways has always been in the forefront of development and utilisation of appropriate technologies for rail transport in the country. They have an exclusive Research, Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) dealing with all aspects of technology relating to rail transport. Immediately after Independence the thrust was on building indigenous capabilities for meeting the requirements of locomotives, coaches and other rolling stock for meeting the ever-increasing needs of traffic. Starting with Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) at Chittaranjan and the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at Perambur, today Indian Railways has the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala, the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) at Varanasi, the Wheel & Axle Plant at Bangalore, and the Diesel Component Works at Patiala, where the emphasis has been to absorb and assimilate the latest in rail transport technology adopted to suit the unique Indian requirements. CLW which had started with the manufacture of steam locos has now totally switched over to the manufacture of state-of-the-art electric locomotives with transfer of technology.

The Indian Railways was the first in the country to introduce computers in a big way in batch processing applications of pay roll, inventory control and accounting. Also, over and above the Passenger Reservation System and advanced Passenger Information Systems they are in the process of developing an integrated Management Information System covering the entire network. A Long Range Decision Support System providing for scenario building and what-if analysis for investment planning has also been developed and is being utilised for investment planning and decision making. Modern signalling systems using solid state interlocking auxiliary warning systems for enhancing and ensuring safety, heavier rails, concrete sleepers, elastic fastenings, long span bridges in pre-stressed concrete, improvements in overhead electric traction, use of information technology in all area of railway working etc. are the other areas where Indian railways are utilising modern technology to meet the combined needs of traffic and safety.

GIVING AN I.T. BOOST TO INDIAN RAILWAYS

Faiz Askari reports on the various initiatives that CRIS has chalked out for the Indian Railways The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has come a long way since 1986. With a team of professionals and R&D efforts, CRIS aims to be a leader in this transport segment. Describing CRIS focus is M R Ramakrishnan, Managing Director of CRIS. The centre was started mainly because certain issues needed to be tackled separately, maybe with the use of information technology. But the major concern was to avoid duplication of effort by individual railway boards, and to ensure standardisation of IT hardware and software on the railways. Apart from this, CRIS was set up to cater to the need for developing computer applications for the railways. This included the need for developing expertise in highly specialised

fields like operations research, simulation, expert systems, CAD/CAM and process control. CRIS also has to adjust to the need for greater flexibility to keep pace with changing technology. Though the bulk of the activities are being handled by CRIS, on a project-to-project basis the organisation does take the help of professionals from TCS, Wipro, IBM and HP. That IT has become an integral part of CRIS can be seen from the various initiatives that the body plans to take in the coming years. The total IT budget of CRIS for the year 200607 is Rs 350 crore, where the focus will be on upgrading the existing technology and infrastructure, and implementing newer tools and techniques for building IT infrastructure. Four-pronged focus

Online ticketing Web-enabled services Building an IT application that can reflect the existing business performance

Shift towards data mining from data warehousing

With India becoming an IT hub, it was natural for the PSUs and government to sit up and take notice. Agrees Ramakrishnan, It is a paradigm shift for Indian Railways, with the thrust given to building, sustaining and improving IT infrastructure. Earlier, IT was only a management tool... now it is evolving into a good business process tool. Ramakrishnan believes that this change was bound to come about with the growing competition from the rest of the transport industry. The Indian Railways understood this competitive market scenario too. Thus, to continue our leadership position in the market, we needed to have a flexible business process for which the customers confidence was essential. The best way to achieve this was through IT.

Describing the present focus of CRIS, Ramakrishnan states, We are aggressively building business process applications through IT tools and techniques. Smart cards in the offing There are several plans and schemes that CRIS has for enhancing the railway experience. One such new initiative is issuing smart cards and deploying kiosks for ticketing. Talking about these initiatives Ramakrishnan says, We want to create a customer loyalty programme. We plan to introduce smart cards for passengers who travel frequently via Indian Railways. With these smart cards, customers can buy tickets at kiosks. We are confident of starting the first phase of the smart cards project within this fiscal year. The first phase of the smart cards project will cover around 200 locations including metros. The budget for the first phase is between Rs 6 crore to Rs 7 crore for 2006. RFID for wagon and consignment racking Indian Railways is not only the nations preferred means of transport, but it is also the biggest freight and courier transporter. It plans to use RFID for tracking wagons and consignments. This would also help the user to know whether their consignments have actually reached. For the pilot phase of this RFID technology, the budget is between Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore. In wagon fleet tracking, CRIS plans to have an RFID chip-embedded in all wagons and provide sheds that would read these chips and register data. After the implementation, the details can be fed into the Indian Railways freight operating information system to help track wagons accurately. Ramakrishnan explains further. We are going to start a pilot project of the integrated information system using RFID technology. In our existing infrastructure, we have data loggers who receive the information of any train that passes a station. These loggers then send that information to the divisional control office.

What CRIS has done is integrate all this information process through RFID technology. With this technology, the customer and railway official will both be aware of train movements. We have also planned to display this information in the coaches of that particular train as well, so that the passengers will also benefit from the technology, he adds. Projects in the pipeline

Building international standard data centres An enterprise payment gateway Coaching operations, parcel management, control office and crew management system

BI and data warehousing for the Passenger Reservation System, FOIS and Unreserved Ticketing System

Disaster recovery for business critical systemsFOIS, PRS, UTS and COIS.

Multi-faceted potential On CRIS competencies and potential, Ramakrishnan comments, CRIS has a large pool of experienced and competent professionals with expertise in the entire range of engineering functions delivering turnkey solutions 24x7. More than just doing engineering work, CRIS also offers services which include consultancy and project management for system analysis and design; solutions architecture; IT infrastructure including networks and data centres; TCO analysis for technology evaluations; server and storage sizing, installation and commissioning; operation support

and maintenance; channelling product licencing/OE spares; migration/re-engineering of legacy systems; business intelligence; data warehousing and disaster recovery. CRIS has also established a countrywide communication infrastructure for Indian Railways. The centre also provides onsite and offsite training in development and management of information system. Getting better Ramakrishnan concludes by saying that his team will continue to strive for better and faster results for Indian Railways and its customers. We are happy to see ourselves in this position, but with a slight change in our focus, we will sustain our leadership in the Indian travel and transport secto

APPLICATION OF IT AND COMPUTERS IN RAILWAYS

ABSTRACT: Indian Railways (IR) is the principal mode of surface transport in the country. Realizing the important role that Information Technology plays in Railways Operations, IR had embarked on its Computerization Program, earlier than many other organizations in the country. Towards the end of 60's, the plan to progressively computerize Railways was accepted in principle by Management and the Labor Unions. After the early introduction of Basic Computer Applications e.g. Pay rolls, Inventory Control and Operating Statistics, Railways went for deployment of Computers for Productivity Improvement and implemented computerization of Passenger Reservation System, developing a Freight Operations Information System, Unreserved Ticketing System, development of Railways own computer network called RAILNET, Management Information System and many more other applications.

NEED FOR 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 and the total Investment has been Rs. 356.2 Billion. The Traffic is carried with the help of over 7,000 Locomotives and 300,000 Wagons. IR's network has 7,050 Railway Stations and its employees number a little over 1.3 million. Over the last four and half decades, the Freight transport has increased by about 5.75 times and Passenger output by about 4.2 times. Among the BG routes, the six corridors connecting the four major Metropolises and the two Diagonals comprising 15.8% of total network carry in excess of 56% of the total freight transport output and 47% of passenger traffic, thereby causing serious congestion on the golden quadrilateral. The perennial constraint of resources has adversely affected Railway's development resulting in diversion of traffic from rail to road at an overall higher cost to the economy. As Railways stare into the not so rosy future, the alternative is the Information Technology tool. Realizing the important role that Information plays in Railways Operations, IR had embarked on its Computerization Program, earlier than many other organizations in the country. Towards the end of 60's, IR could realize its potential advantage and the plan to progressively computerize Railways was accepted in principle by Management and the Labor Unions. Secondly, IR developed a dedicated skeletal Communication Network, as a basic requirement for Train Operation. After the early introduction of Basic Computer Applications e.g. Pay rolls, Inventory Control and Operating Statistics, Railways went for deployment of Computers for Productivity Improvement through building up operational databases. Later on, IR decided on

Computerization of the Passenger Reservation Arrangement.

Developing a Freight Operations Information System.

Replacing the existing Computers at the Zonal Railways and Production Units with the State-of-the-art Computer systems enabling the organization to computerize more applications.

Provision of Computers at Divisions, New Production units, Workshops, Sheds and Depots and Training Institutes.

Quantum improvement in the use of Computers in the offices.

USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN RAILWAY

Passenger Amenities Areas

PRS

UTS

IVRS

NTES

Freight & Train Management system (FOIS)

FOIS

TMS

COIS

RMS

Networking

RAILNET

Office LAN OTHER APPLICATION

Intranet

DATA LOGGER

MTRC

DIGITAL AXLCOUNTERS

VOICE LOGGER

SIGNALING DATA LOGGER

PASSENGER RESERVATION SYSTEM (PRS)

Out of the total passengers carried by IR, inter-city passengers constitute a mere 9% of the total volume. But, this small proportion, generates about 52% of the total Passenger-Km and also brings in a revenue of roughly 72% of the total. This market segment is a wellpatronized one and in order to meet the situation, the customers have been provided with the facility of making their reservation on these trains. Because of the complexity and sheer volume involved, IR undertook management of Reservation work through computers. A pilot project implemented at New Delhi in November 1985 came out successful by May 1987, the entire New Delhi Reservation Load was computerized. This system was further implemented at remaining three metropolitan cities, namely, Mumbai (June '87), Kolkata (July '87) and Chennai (October '87). the last at Secunderabad (July '89). Many other stations having advance reservation arrangements were connected as remote terminals to the existing five computer systems for accessing the entire database of the host computer. CONCERT (Country- wide Network of computerized Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing), Indian railways fully automated passenger Reservation system, is a complex on line distributed transaction application based on client server architecture interconnecting the regional computing system into a National PRS grid. The salient features of CONCERT software are:

Allows passenger from any where to do a booking for a journey in any train in any class from anywhere to anywhere.

Handles reservation, modifications cancellation/refunds.

31 supervisory on-line functions and 21 on-line enquiries.

Performs reservation for over 8,82,000 seats and berths (peak rush as high as 10,17,000) daily.

4262 reservation terminals

Across more than 1200 locations.

CONCERT software offers a range of operating options, including: 40 types of quota

8 types of train

9 type of classes

192 types of concessions

105 types of coaches including composite coaches etc.

Printing of bilingual journey ticket.

Response time of less than two second for a reservation transaction

Complex rules, validations and fare computation technique interwoven in the application.

Data base administration package to cater to dynamic operational requirement with respect to change in train profile, timetable and fares.

PRS on INTERNET and other Networks. Dynamic information available on the website A) Enquiry PNR status

Train between pair of station

Accommodation availability

Train Schedule

Station code enquiry

All above available enquires are also available through SMS on mobile phone

B) Static information dissemination Reservation/refund rules

 General information Tourist information Special train

PRS ON INTERNET AND OTHER NETWORKS

E- ticketing: CRIS has successfully developed the Internet ticketing solution launched by IRCTC. The effort involved interfacing the IRCTC front end with back end PRS Alpha servers, writing procedures for search and queries at the backend, ticket printing on existing clients and accounting software. SMS and Alert Services: The following services are available on 676747, 8888 with major cellular service providers like Airtel, Hutch, Idea, BPL, MTNL & BSNL, etc: PNR status, accommodation availability, trains between stations, fare, train schedule, etc. Alerts for delays in departure of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi services to be launched shortly. UTS (UNRESERVED TICKET SYSTEM) Unreserved ticket constitutes a major component of the overall ticketing and contributes a large amount of earning for Indian Railways. To achieve the goal of modern ticketing system, the UTS solution, adopted, meets the immediate and short-term needs but shall be able to incorporate the future technologies easily and quickly. UTS is the complete solution for computerized unreserved ticketing from dedicated counter terminals and replaces manual Printed Card Tickets/EFTs/BPTs. In future ticketing from handheld terminals smart card, automatic vending machines, etc. is also envisaged.

Features of Unreserved Ticketing System Latest technology Reduced queues Tickets available from any station to any station All concessions Return/Reverse/Cancellation of tickets Allows ticketing 3 days in advance Analysis of the demand on various routes to enable planning of augmentation of train services/coaches This is recently new system in the Railways. First UTS system made portioning in year 2001. In DHN, UTS operational at 2 counters. Ticket from any station to any station on Indian Railways. Train fares printed on ticket are current.. Only one ticket for more than one passenger in a group. UTS Works on 64 kbps data channel of OFC (Railway) or BSNL.

 For issue of General/ Second class tickets only. All UTS counters are connected in a network of E.C. Rly and Main server is at Patna.
MODEM

FREIGHT OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM (FOIS) The market share of IR in the total freight traffic carried in the country has been declining in the last 20 years mainly due to the inability of IR to carry all the traffic offered to it. While considerable inputs are needed for augmenting the capacity of rolling stock as well as line capacity, the optimum utilization of existing resources is considered more imperative for carrying additional volume of traffic. Realizing the significant contribution that Computerization can make in improving the utilization of Rolling Stock assets, Indian Railways have been planning from the early stages for the introduction of use of computers in the freight operations. Ultimately, Indian Railways decided in 1986 to go in for an integrated computer communication system called Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) with an objective to computerize the information relating to all operational activities and monitor the performance of all activity centers connected with freight traffic management. In the era of supply chain management and integrated logistic movement, continuous cargo visibility is the most critical component of any physical distribution system.. FOIS enables management and control of freight movement and optimization of asset utilization. The system enables freight customers to have instant access to information on current status of their consignments in transit facilitating just in time inventory. 1. FOIS comprises the Rake Management System (RMS) which handles Freight Operations and Terminal Management System (TMS) which manages commercial transactions. About 2000 reporting devices have been commissioned at more than 425 locations of Indian Railways.

2. FOIS has been designed to give strategic advantages to both Indian Railways and its customers. The implementation of the system is envisaged to achieve the following: (i) Increasing market share by clubbing and moving together similar type of stock with "Hub & Spoke" arrangement. (ii) Global tracking of consignments in near real time. (iii) Facilitates acceptance of customer's orders, billing cash accounting of receipts through introduction of e-commerce. 3. FOIS provides tremendous opportunities to both the railway and their customers, improving existing business practice, reducing operating costs while enhancing the quality of services.

IVRS (INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONACE SYSTEM) IVRS (INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONACE SYSTEM) system is a telephonic enquiry system which gives following information is multiple languages Passenger Name Record (PNR) enquiry Train Arrival/Departure information enquiry Berth availability position in any train.

NTES (National Train Enquiry System) NTES provides arrival/departure as well as current status information about any passenger train in the entire Indian railways NTES is parallel to PRS. The servers are located at five metros i.e. Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Secunderabad. and all interconnected. Entry are made regarding running of train every half and hours at various location including divisional Headquarter all over the Indian railways.

NTES is used by IVRS and other web enabled services and mobile services for providing train information to the public.

Computerized information about train running is available at www.tra.inenquiry.com with the following features: 1. Spot Your Train: Displays current running status of a train along with the delays if any 2. 3. 4. 5. 6, 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Find Your Trains: - Displays list of trains running between two stations along with their timings and days of run. Train Arrivals:- Displays list of trains arriving at a station in the specified time frame (next 3 hours). Train Departures: Displays a list of trains departing from a station in the specified time frame (next 3 hours). Train Time Table:- Detailed scheduled timings (arrival and departure) of a train at all halting stations. Passing by Trains:- Shows a list of trains arriving at a station in the next 24 hours. Detailed list of Railways Amenities at various stations of a II the 1 6 zones. Information about Prestigious Trains (e.g. Palace on Wheels, Royal Orient, etc.) Information about Railway Rules. Information pertaining to Tourists. Hindi Section for important pages.

RAILNET To reap the benefit of explosion in Information Technology, Indian Railways have establish a Corporate Wide Information System (CWIS) between Railway Board, Zonal

Railways Head Quarters, Production Units and Centralized Training Institutes, etc. called as RAILNET. It is able to provide smooth flow of Information on demand for administrative purposes, which will help in taking quicker and better decisions. RAILNET has the potential for transfer of Messages, Files, and E-Mails between important locations on Indian Railways. In addition, the internal Web site in Railway Board and Zonal Railways Headquarters supports Directives and other important Information for day-do-day use by various officials. RAILNET provide computer connectivity between Railway Board and Zonal Railways, Production Units, Centralized Training Institutes, RDSO, CORE, MTP/Calcutta & 46 Major Training Institutes. The structure of RAILNET is as under: Besides these three mainstream Applications, by using Information Technology, the Management Information System as well as Decision Support System also can be improved and be made very efficient. MOBILE TRAIN RADIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

The System is primarily based on the European telecommunication standards Institute (ETSI) Global System for Mobile (GSM) Phase-2 standard and additional requirements specified in EIRENE and Mobile Radio for Railways Network in Europe (MORANE) SRS documents.

Network : Network shall support following voice telephony services. Point to point voice calls. Broadcast voice calls. Group voice calls. Multicompany voice calls. Emergency voice calls. All voice calls services except group calls shall be display and shall able to operate between any combination of fixed and mobile equipment users.

The system shall support multi party voice communication between upto six different parties. Any of the parties involved in a multi-party voice call shall be able to talk simultaneously.

The system shall provide direct mode capability for set-to-set communication within the radio coverage area of a base station.

The network shall have the capability of supporting following data services, which may be required by Railway in future: Train control applications. General data applications. Automatic fax and text messages.

The network shall support point-to-point data communications. The network shall support data rates of at least 2.4 kbit/s. The network shall support as a minimum following call related services Display of identity of called / calling user. Restriction of display of called / calling user. Priority and pre-emption. Closed user group. Call forwarding. Call hold. Call waiting. Call barring.

The MTR network shall also provide support for the following railway specific services Railway emergency calls

Functional addressing including registration / deregistration Location dependent addressing. Shunting mode. Multiple driver communications.

CONCLUSION

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS) For running any Business Organization, the efficiency of the MIS is very important. Indian Railways have many areas, where use of IT is going to have a telling effect. Some of the areas are:

1)

Rail Budget Compilation System ( Chipping out the budget)

CRIS has developed RBCS for collecting budgetary inputs from the different zones and production units of the Indian Railways. The system facilitates capturing of data, building of database, analysis of demands and pruning of the estimates for inclusion in the Railway Budget. Apart from MIS reports, the system enables printing of budget documents in bilingual -Hindi and English. This system is implemented at 88 locations spread over Zonal Railways and Production Units apart from Railway Board. 2) Comprehensive Payroll Processing System (Scrolling the Payroll)

CPPS is a comprehensive bilingual package generating monthly salary bills including Incentive Bonus Calculation and Labor Accounting modules and pay slips in Hindi

3)

Vigilance Software System (VSS)

VSS is designed specially for the requirements of Vigilance Department of Indian Railways and has been implemented in all the Vigilance Departments of Indian Railway Zonal Head Quarters. VSS maintains information about vigilance cases / complaints includes various reports, forwarding letters generated by Vigilance Department & keeps track of Receipt & 4.) Material Management Information System for P-Way material (MMIS)

This package is designed specially for the requirements of Civil Engineering Department of Indian Railways and helps the users in accounting' stores for P-Way materials, Special emphasis has been given to scrap disposal. Use of IT in Personnel Management 5.) CATS Comprehensive Accounting & Transaction System (CATS) has been designed with common database to address functionalities for both

personnel and Finance Departments. CATS contains two major modules Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS) Use of IT is likely to be implemented in the following areas also Asset Management Information System Health Management Information System Passenger Information System Project Management Information System Law Management Information System Training Management Information System

Disaster Management Information System Transport Management Information System

References:

www.indianrailway.com www.railwayinquiery.com www.indianrail.gov.in www.trainweb.org www.geocities.com/rail