Mumbai, 14 August 2014

The Minister of Railways, Shri S.D.Sadananda Gowda launched new IT initiatives/applications including a Next Generation e-ticketing (NGeT) system at a function in Mumbai on 13th August. These initiatives have been developed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Railways. The new applications developed by CRIS, are; NGet, Freight E-Demand Registration, E-Diversion of Coal rakes, Go India Card:-

Next Generation e-ticketing (NGeT)

Indian Railways’ e-ticketing system www.irctc.co.in is one of the most essential G2C services operational in the country today. It caters to over 8 lakh passengersdaily (50% of reserved passengers). The old system had system capacity for 40,000 concurrent sessions while NGeT has system capacity of 1,20,000 concurrent sessions. The old system had system capacity of 2,000 tickets booking per minute while the new system has capacity of 7,200. The old system had system capacity of 50,000 enquiries per minute while the new system has capacity of 2,00,000 enquiries per minute.

Next Generation e-ticketing (NGeT) project is funded by IRCTC. It has replaced the existing system on 14 July 2014. According to Indian Railways.

“With its resilient and scalable architecture, cutting edge technology, backed by high performance and user friendly features, the new NGeT has led to a quantum jump in improved customer satisfaction,” Indian Railway said in a statement.

Train Inquiry Mobile App

CRIS has enhanced the Train Enquiry system by developing a Mobile App and a desktop application for Windows 8 platform. It has now become easier to track the movement of passenger trains and arrival and departure timings for the benefit of passengers. The app connects to the Train Enquiry system at the Back-end.

One of the best features of the new app is “spot your train” which provides information such as its current position, expected time of arrival and departure at a particular station, train schedule, train between two stations, information on cancelled/diverted/rescheduled trains, and trains expected to arrive and depart from a particular station in the next 2 or 4 hours. The App can be downloaded as a free app for Windows 8 phones. It is planned to release it on the Android platform also shortly.

Freight E-Demand system

In Freight train movement, the need for an on-line system for Registration of rakes and wagons will be finally met with the launch of the e-Demand module of the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS). With the release of this module, customers can sit in the convenience of their homes or offices and register their freight demands.

Customers can access the module at www.fois.indianrail.gov.in. the demand can be registered for a full rake or a large r number of rakes and follow the process of registration through a single window. The module will bring transparency into the system of registration also.

The module has been designed and developed under the guidance of Indian Railways’ officers by experienced software professionals of CRIS.

Some of the salient features are:

· Transparency: possibility to track and trace all registered indents

· Multifaceted: caters to both programmed and non-programmed indents

· Convenience: easy to use interface (anytime anywhere)

· Security: Securely integrated with IRCTC payment gateway for collection and refund of WRF.

· Prediction: provides advance insight to Railways about customers’ demands

· Green: reduced paperwork

Freight E-Diversion system

The power of IT has been extended to revamp the current manual process of diverting coal rakes among the Power Houses and Corporations of Electricity Board through the new “e-diversion system”.

Apart form being the process automation that would help railway operation, the e-diversion system will help customers in a big way by eliminating the long process of surrendering of documents at the originating station, adding payment of freight for the same consignment and long claims process.

The system will allow authorized Railways personnel to issue diversion orders and notify controllers by integration with the Control Office Application.

Some of the salient features of the module are:

· Authorized access only

· Customer friendly

· No double payment

· No penalty

· Prompt settlement of claims

· Transparency

Go India Smart card

This is a pan India smart card to enable passengers to pay for tickets for long distance reserved, unreserved, and suburban journeys as a pilot project.

It can be used a nominated UTS counters and Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) and nominated PRS counters for reserved tickets

It is a contact-less smart card: no need to swipe or insert into a slot.

The pilot project to be implemented on the following two sectors:

· New Delhi – Howrah sector at 6 stations.: New Delhi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Dhanbad, Asansol, Howrah

· New Delhi – Mumbai sector at 6 stations: New Delhi, Kota, Vadodara, Ratlam, Surat, Mumbai Central.

Initially, the card can be issued by paying Rs. 70/- where passenger can get Rs. 20/- balance. After that the card can be recharged for Rs. 20/- or in multiples of Rs. 50/- up to Rs. 5000/-. Maximum limit can be Rs. 10,000/-.

Go-India smart card has lifetime validity.

New Rail Neer Plant in Mumbai region

A new Rail Neer plant at Ambernath (Mumbai) of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways, was inaugurated for commercial production today. The production capacity of this plant will be 2 lakh liters per day, raising the total production (of the four plants) to 6.1 lakh litres of Packaged Drinking Water (PDW) daily. Till now, already existing three Rail Neer plants used to cater to the Northern, Eastern and Southern parts of our country. As there is no Rail Neer Plant in Western India, there was a need for a plant in this region. The Rail Neer Plant at Ambernath will cater to the need of the Railway passengers in this region. Mumbai Region is an important gateway for passenger traffic. The Railway stations in Mumbai region alone handles over 350 trains and about 4.5 lakh passengers every day. Rail Neer conforms to the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications IS: 14543-2004, and is a well accepted brand among the Railway passengers.