Rail Budget: Will IT spend increase?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As rail minister Dinesh Trivedi is all set to unveil Rail Budget 2012-13 on March 14, the IT sector is keenly hoping for a new railways modernization journey.

With a host of proposals awaiting implementation, the IT spend in Indian Railways is likely to go up, this fiscal. As part of the ICT-driven roadmap, Trivedi is enthusiastic to initiate e-auction and e-tendering.

Indian Railways, he said, needs Rs.14 lakh crore over a period of decade to embark on next-generation modernization process. This shall include rail network upgradation and automation of the signals.

The Rail Bhawan sources say that they have recently entered into a deal with SNCF- a French state-owned railways company. The latter will facilitate technology-oriented roadmap for the Indian Railways.

The ministry also plans to develop commercial Website for yield management. The focus will also be to introduce more digitalized unreserved ticketing system (UTS) counters in B and C cities.

Although automatic ticket vending machines have been installed in metros and few major cities, but to passengers’ comfort, it may likely get renewed attention in the Rail Budget.

Trivedi believes improved railways system would be achieved through a partnership between the Centre and states, and by adopting PPP model.

Speaking to CIOL, NASSCOM VP Ameet Nivsarkar feels that modernization process has many components. "Moving legacy applications to modern software services requires slightly higher investment,” he said.

The railways' ambitious modernization roadmap is an opportunity for IT firms, believes Nivsarkar. “With increased ICT spend, the Indian Railways can have many benefits that include productivity and efficiency enhancement over subsequent years,” he added.

MAIT president and CII’s office automation and imaging division chairman Alok Bharadwaj feels that investment in modernization is a good development. “Indian Railways is one of the early adopters of IT,” he said.

Railways, as Bharadwaj informed, constitute nearly 5 per cent of the total government business of IT companies, in India. It’s one of the major buyers of servers, PCs and other IT products and equipment.

Going forward, Bharadwaj believes that connectivity should become seamless in railways for mobile and data services.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), established in 1986, is the nodal body for Indian Railways’ ICT activities.