INDIAN RAILWAYS

INFORMATION
SYSTEMS

AKSHIT SOBTI - 40707002

AMAN - 40707003
AMIT KALANIYA - 40707004
ANKIT KAPOOR - 40707005
ANKUR VERMA - 40707006

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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.

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RAILWAY BUDGET

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BALANCE SHEET
Figures in Rupees ( in crores)
Particulars 31.3.06 31.3.07 31.3.08 31.3.09 31.3.10
A. Assets 16.90 16.98 17.01 17.08 16.99
2.00 2.41 2.81 3.09 3.30
Fixed Assets-Gross Block
Less:Depreciation

Net Block 14.90 14.57 14.2 13.99 13.69

B. Long Term Loans & Advances 21900.52 24730.73 27025.52 31561.91 38392.33
C. Investments 0.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
1299.46 972.54 1502.19 1012.74 1508.20
D. Current Assets, Loans & 47.86 114.89 227.89 430.81
Advances:: 295.09 391.25 420.78 360.28 315.89
Cash and Bank Balances 426.31
Other Current Assets
Loans & Advances
1642.41 1478.68 2150.87 1799.33 2254.90
Misc. Expenditure (to the extent
not written off) 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

Liabilities & Provisions

E. Loan Funds 14448.79 16341.95 19012.60 22600.25 27944.70
5467.29 5452.22 5085.97 4788.46 5663.88
Secured Loans 19916.08 21794.17 24098.57 27388.71 33608.58
Unsecured Loans 1106.46 1710.14 1854.65 2256.55 2467.02
F. Deferred Tax Liability (Net)

G. Current Liabilities &

Provisions. 396.81 493.82 617.76 773.72 900.49
Current Liabilities 42.72 106.60 196.04 211.63 282.53
Provisions 439.53 600.42 813.80 985.35 1183.02

H. Net Worth 232.00 232.00 500.00 500.00 1091.00

0.00 268.00 0.00 300.00 -
Represented by: Shareholders 1863.76 1621.25 1925.76 1980.70 2314.48
funds Share Capital 2095.76 2121.25 2425.76 2780.70 3405.48
Share application money 23557.83 26225.98 29192.78 33411.32 40664.10
Reserves & Surplus
Total

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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

Income

Lease income 1892.00 2097.48 2374.33 2726.45 3073.76

Income on loans, deposits 119.65 141.93 207.93 286.89 359.86

& advances

Income on investments 0.00 44.57 0.64 0.07 0.08

Exchange Rate Variation 6.98 0.00 14.05 1.96 11.16

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

Expenditure

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

Exchange Rate Variation 1.86 0.00 0.00 34.55

Loss

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Total Expenditure 1514.61 1672.32 1984.77 2367.05 2695.53

Provision written 0.06 0.00 0.00 0.00

Back(Net)

Prior Period Adjustment -1.1 0.03 -1.67 -0.04 -0.12

(Net income)

Net Profit Before Tax 503.98 611.74 638.35 657.69 788.29

Provision for Taxation

-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

Apportions

Proposed Dividend 150.00 160.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

(including interim
Dividend Paid)

Dividend Tax 21.04 22.44 17.00 17.00 17.00

Transfer to General 40.00 40.00 42.16 19.00 46.00

Reserve

Transfer to Exchange 4.00 31.50 8.97 19.47 0.00

Variation Reserve

Balance transfer to Bonds 118.85 144.76 253.39 25.32 280.69

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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 Pre-
deposit 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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15
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.

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 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.

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 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 DS-
20 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.

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19
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

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 • 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 non-
stop ticketing at remote locations, easy embedding of the ticketing application to Disk-On-
Chip, 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 up-
to-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-to-
face 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

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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

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 • 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.

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 • 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.

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• 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.
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 • 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

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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:-

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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

• INDIAN RAILWAYS BUDGET 2010
• NORTHERN RAILWAY TRAINING MANUAL
• http://www.sybase.com/files/Success_Stories/Indian-Railway-050409-SS.pdf
(LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)
• http://customers.redhat.com/2010/05/06/irctc-relies-on-red-hat/
(LAST ACCESSED ON 17th Jan 2011)
• http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/portfolio/customer-successes/success-
stories/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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