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railways

Cutting-edge technology, the reports to monitor the cases, compara-

tive performance.
new buzz word for railways Rail Road crossing
Another initiative is Rail road cross -
ing GAD approval system. This project
for online e-Governance platform was
developed by Ministry of Railways and
related services. The Indian Railways it out except in emergency. In addition to Ministry of Road Transport and High-
tehelka bureau is desperately trying to strengthen its it works that require CRS sanction are ways to expedite preparation, process-
Information Technology enablement opening a new line, doubling/tripling, ing & approval of General Agreement
through rollout of new online applica- gauge conversion etc. Drawings (GADs) related to construction
hen Union Railways tions. Underlying idea is to ensure proper An online application for CRS Sanc- of Road Over Bridges (ROB)/Road Under
Minister, Piyush Goyal monitoring of projects being undertaken tion Management has been developed Bridges (RUB). It has been running suc-
tweeted on November by Indian Railways and will boost the in which all works pertaining to level cessfully since 2014.
7, 2019 that “Winter is vision of Digital India. crossings (closure, manning, shifting Now, a module has been developed
W Coming and Railways is etc.) and minor bridges. Further modules to cover cases of construction of ROBs/
Prepared: Focusing on safety & punctu- New Rail Safety App under development in this application RUBs for States and UTs also. The benefits
ality, a host of measures including SMS The three applications include the Com- are increase of speed over Turnouts & of the project are-accountability of Rail-
updates on delay, fog safety devices & mission of Railways Safety (CRS) Sanc- Loop Lines, inspection of new lines and ways and State Governments/UTs is fixed
special patrolling have been put in place tion, which is an important aspect in doubling etc. The benefits of the project to each stage for approval of proposals,
ahead of the fog season” it was clear that construction, maintenance and up-gra- are expeditious preparation and process- better and real time coordination be-
the minister is working overtime to make dation of railway assets. The sanction of ing of cases for CRS Sanction, effective tween the stakeholders (Railways/States) Among the slew of reserved coaches, allot the vacant berths
railway services impeccable. CRS is required for execution of any work monitoring of compliance of observa- and facilitates users to get proposal sta- and transmit information on avail -
Among the slew of measures that on open line which will affect running of tions raised by the CRS, on-Line Reposi- tus through mail and SMS at each stage. measures that the able berths to the subsequent stations.
the Indian Railways has taken recently, trains carrying passengers & any tempo- tory of circulars/check-lists/guidelines Other benefits are complete proposal is Railways has taken The HHT can also access the ticketing
the most noticeable is enabling it for IT rary arrangement necessary for carrying related to CRS Sanction and managerial targeted to be approved in maximum of application and collect excess fares as
60 days and all information related to the recently, the most per rules. The terminal can potentially
proposal and contact person is available noticeable is enabling connect to a Point of Sale (POS) machine
within the proposal. and charges can be collected digitally.
Another IT initiative is TMS for con- it for IT-related Over the last four years, the capacity
struction. This application has been de- services to strengthen of the website has increased to 20,000
veloped for new assets being constructed tickets per minute starting from 2000
by the construction/project organisation. its presence tickets per minute in 2014, a ten-fold
The assets master data can now be regu- increase. Apart from the capacity, the
larly filled during the stage of construc- entire user experience has been
tion and completion of assets, by the implemented, whereby GPS tracking de- improved substantially with the launch a
construction officials before itself final vices would communicate using satellite new interface with easier navigation and
scrutiny and test check by the open line communications. The trials have been standard views that enable the passen-
officials. The benefits of the project are- successful. Apart from this, data logger gers to transact smoothly. New features
data validation at source, ease in data systems already available in track-cir- have been added that enable better plan-
entry and correction thereof, easy check- cuited stations are being used at major ning of journeys aiding the passenger to
ing/verification of data entry and for interchange points to capture arrival/ obtain confirmed tickets.
every data the ownership and responsi- departure information on trains.
bility is defined and fixed in the applica- In an effort to computerize the trans- Paperless ticketing
tion design. actions of the station master, a Comput- Unreserved ticketing on mobile phones
erized Train Signal Register is going live was launched at Mumbai initially and
Trains tracker at 650 stations and this enables arrival/ has since been expanded to suburban
Yet other IT initiatives are tracking of departure information to be transmitted sections of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata
trains using newer technologies. Rail- to the Control Office Application (COA) and Secunderabad and New Delhi-Pal-
ways have experimented with tracking and the National train Enquiry System wal section of Northern Railway. This
of trains using GPS devices with these (NTES) directly from the station mas- has eliminated the need for passengers
GPS devices located in the locomotive. ter’s desk. Handheld Terminals (HHTs) to stand in queue for getting tickets
For a sustainable solution, a Real Time have been provided to the Train Ticket for journey in unreserved compart -
Train Information System (RTIS) is being Examiners (TTEs) to be able to check the ments of trains. The ticket is delivered

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