Rlys to set up enquiry systems' network

Pragati Simlote

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways (IR) is planning to set up a countrywide network of enquiry systems.

By dialling one number people all over the country can have access to information about the various trains. In the next two — three years, Railways is planning to set up 23 centers in all (call centers + network centers) on a public-private partnership basis and the call centers would be linked to IR's train enquiry website, www.trainenquiry.com, which provides information about train timings, delays, trains running, etc.

In the next three years, IR plans to connect around 850 more stations for providing computerized unreserved ticketing, gradually working towards connecting 3,000 stations to provide unreserved ticketing. Currently, 138 stations are connected through leased lines — one line from Railway's own network and another line from a service provider. The next phase would entail connecting all the 3,000 stations.

According to Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) computerization & information systems director (Mechanical Engineering) SS Mathur, one of the key challenges the organization faces is deploying IT over a large geographical spread. “It is difficult to deploy IT in areas not well served by electricity, telecom, trained manpower, etc.,” he said.

IR has a planned capital expenditure of Rs 169 crore for IT implementation (including building, electricity in the IT plan head) by March 2006. Railways have outsourced all its hardware requirements and Center For Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is responsible for designing, developing and implementing all major computer systems for the Railways.

IR currently has server clusters in five Indian metros for servicing the requirement of reserved ticketing. For the normal or the unreserved ticketing, Railways has nine servers catering to around one crore people daily. IR is also planning to issue unreserved tickets 24 hours a day.