Indian Railway & IT

8/12/2019 Indian Railway & IT

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IT in Indian Railways

IT Implementation In Indian Railways

TERM PROJECT

Submitted to:

Ms. Dipali Bhardwaj

Submitted by: Group-1

Arun Sharma (8130)

Isha Arora (81146)

Vivek Ravindran(81162)


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Any comprehensive work like this, must owe credit to a multitude of people. Certainly, we should

acknowledge the contribution of the pioneers in the IT field; especially those teachings have become a

part of our thinking. They truly deserve much of the credit for this report. It is with a sincere expression of

gratitude that gratitude towards them is recognized.

We would also like to thank Ms. Dipali Bhardwaj for making us aware of the Startegic importance of

Information Technology and helping us at each and every step of this report.

Group-1

Arun Sharma

Isha Arora

Vivek ravindran


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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ...................................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction................................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background of IT in Railways ................................................................................................... 1

1.2 History of IT Interface ............................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Need for IT in Railways ............................................................................................................. 2

Chapter-2 ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

IT in Indian Railways .................................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) ................................................................... 4

2.2 Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) ........................................................................... 5

Chapter-3 ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

RAILNET ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

3.1 Need-Problems with Transfer of Messages & Files................................................................. 9

3.2 Tools Provided By Railnet.......................................................................................................... 9

3.3 Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 9

3.4 Architecture ............................................................................................................................... 10

3.5 Phases Of Railnet ...................................................................................................................... 10

2.5.1 Phase - I .............................................................................................................................. 10

3.5.3 PhaseIII (Sanctioned) ................................................................................................... 12

Chapter-4 .................................................................................................................................................... 14

Railtel Corporation of India Limited .......................................................................................................... 14

4.1 Communication Requirements for Railways .............................................................................. 14

4.2 Objectives of Railtel ................................................................................................................... 14

4.3 Demand Potential ........................................................................................................................ 15

4.4 Business Financials and Revenue Model for Railtel................................................................... 15

4.5 Competitor Analysis ................................................................................................................... 16

4.6 SWOT- RailTel ........................................................................................................................... 18

References .................................................................................................................................................. 20


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Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Background of IT in Railways

Indian Railways (IR) is the principal mode of transport in the country. IR today has 63,327 route

km of rail track. Last year, IR moved 390.5 million tonnes of freight, generating a traffic output

of 272 billion tonne kms. At the same time the system carried 6570 million passengers. This

output was produced with the help of over 8,000 locomotives and 300,000 wagons. The

efficiency index of Wagon utilization measured in terms of net tonne kms per wagon per day

stood at 1,780, which is one of the highest in the World. Indian Railways Passenger Reservation

System (PRS) now covers 800 locations with 6872 terminals.IR's network has 7,050 Railway Stations and its employees number a little over 1.6 million -

making it the largest single employer in India. Over the last four and half decades, the freight

transport has increased by about 5.75 times and passenger output by about 4.2 times. The growth

in traffic output has not been evenly matched by the growth in inputs in the form of track and

rolling stock. The high density has been further accentuated by the imbalance of the traffic flows.

The BG routes though forming 63.2% of the route carry 95% of freight traffic and 89% of

passenger traffic of IR. Among the BG routes, the six corridors connecting the four major

metropolises of Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai and the two diagonals comprising 15.8%

of total network carry in excess of 56% of the total freight transport output and 47% of passenger

traffic, thereby causing serious congestion on the golden quadrilateral. The perennial constraint

of resources has adversely affected Railway's development resulting in diversion of traffic from

rail to road at an overall higher cost to the economy. Currently, Railways carry only 40% and

15% of the overall freight and passenger traffic respectively. Rapid growth in the demand for

bulk transport has compelled the railways to evolve operating strategies and technology for

running unit trains to match this demand. The emphasis of the railways on running of unit trains

is denying the use of cost effective rail transport to a large number of smaller volume customers

and this has been hastening the decline of market share on the part of Railways. Indian Railways

have reached today a significant phase and are at a threshold of an uncertain future. IR will be

required to make necessary competitive adjustments to deal with the pressures of market forces


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in a liberalized economic environment, not only to remain financially viable, but to be able to

satisfy the growth in demand for rail transport. As Railways stare into the dark-tunnels, the only

source that can probably shed the light to carry it -blazing into the future is the Information

Technology tool, which many successful organizations are using to their profit.

1.2 History of IT Interface

60s

A dedicated skeletal communication network was developed by IR, as a basicrequirement for train operation.

Plan to progressively computerize railways working was accepted in principle byManagement and Labor Unions

70s

Pay-rolls, Inventory control and Operating statistics Deployment of Computers for productivity improvement through building up operational

data bases

80s

Computerization of Passenger Reservation Arrangement. Developing a Freight Operations Information System. Replacing the existing Computers at the Zonal Railways. Production Units with the State-of-the-art Computer systems Provision of Computers at Divisions, New Production units, Work-shops, Sheds and

Depots and Training Institutes

Quantum improvement in the use of Computers in the offices90s

Enterprise wide Computer system

IT Applications for Passenger Business Area

1.3 Need for IT in Railways

Transportation Industries such as Railways operate in a dynamic and constantly changing

environment. This requires a continuous update of information about current status and location


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of these assets. The optimum utilization of material resources, which they deploy, would require

collection and collation of accurate data on their current utilization and an inventive analysis of

the information collected. Information Resource is a critical managerial tool for confronting and

tackling the business challenges on a real time basis. Transportation industries are also service

industries and they thrive and flourish on information -rich soil that provides them the vitally

needed link to their customers and other major stakeholders. Railways being multi-locational,

multi-functional and multi-divisional organization provide an ideal backdrop for Computer

Networks, which can allow sharing of resources across the Corporation and information with

their customers. Railway Industry, being an age-old industry, finds many of its existing business

and operational practices inadequate for adjusting in the current fast changing business

environment. Unless, Railways also develop capabilities to harness information resources

through the use of exploding information technology, as other industries are doing, its continued

presence as a viable industry in future may become a question mark. On the contrary, if the

railway system can exploit Information Technology to modernize their operations and practices

to suit the needs of their customers, they can gain tremendous competitive advantage in the

present and future business environment.


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Chapter-2

I T in I ndian Railways

2.1 Computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS)It is a matter of comfort for IR that this market segment is a well-patronized one and in order to

meet the situation of demand over running supply, the customers have been provided with the

facility of making their reservation on these trains, 90 days in advance.

A pilot project consisting of a few popular trains implemented at New Delhi in November 1985

came out successful and was well received by the customers. By May 1987, the entire New Delhi

Reservation Load was computerized. The stand-alone VAX Computer Systems were further

implemented at remaining three metropolitan cities, namely, Mumbai (June '87), Calcutta (July

'87) and Chennai (October '87) and they account for over 40% of reservation volume. The last

stand-alone Cyber Computer System was implemented at Secunderabad (July '89), which was

subsequently replaced by VAX computer system (Jan '95).

Many other stations having advance reservation arrangements were connected as remote

terminals to the existing five computer systems for accessing the entire database of the host

computer. Developed through 30 man years of programming effort in the language of

FORTRAN, the software functions as an integrated system of four main modules, which handle

the functional requirements of Reservation, Enquiry, Accounting and Charting. The system has

full scale back up and recovery facilities.

As a first major step towards the goal of single image passenger reservation system, the first

prototype of PRS Networking Software, CONCERT (Countrywide Network of Computerized

Enhanced ReservaTion) using FORTRAN (30%) and C (70%) languages was implemented at

Secunderabad in January '95.

Strategic advantage of using IT in ReservationOut of the total passengers carried by IR, inter-city passengers constitute a mere 9% of the total

volume. But, this small proportion, out of the total, generated 176 billion passenger-km out of a

total of 341 billion passenger-km, about 52% of the total. They also bring in a revenue of Rs.

42.9 billion in a total passenger revenue of Rs. 60 billion, constituting roughly 72% of the total.


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System (FOIS) with an objective to computerize the information relating to all operational

activities and monitor the performance of all activity centers connected with freight traffic

management. The FOIS architecture is two tier, with a central system at Railway Board level,

processing all identified core functions relating to moving assets and Zonal Systems at 5

locations processing all local functions carried out atActivity Reporting Centers such as

Goods Sheds and Sidings, Transshipment Points, Yards, Stations, Interchange Points, Wagon

Repair Depots, Locomotive Sheds, Fuelling Points, Crew Changing Points, Carriage & Wagon

Workshops, Locomotive Workshops etc. While the central computer system is located in New

Delhi, the five Zonal Computer Systems are located at New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai

and Secunderabad. The Central System handles the core functions like control of wagon

movement, control of train movement, locomotive movement, scheduling and routing of traffic,

empty wagon distribution, container traffic, safety management, marketing applications, total

system performance statistics, corporate planning etc. The Zonal Systems handle distributed field

functions like yard management, local area management (inclusive of Goods sheds,

Transshipment sheds, Invoice preparation and invoicing), maintenance and repairs of wagons

and locomotives, crew management, fuel management, safety management, statistical (query

based, scheduled, off-line and message) reports, accounting, billing, costing and apportioning of

revenue among the Zonal Railways etc.

Strategic advantages of using FOISWhile considerable inputs are needed for augmenting the capacity of rolling stock as well as line

capacity, the optimum utilization of existing resources is considered more imperative for

carrying additional volume of traffic. It is of common knowledge that railway systems all over

the world have profitably used computerization for improving the utilization of rolling stock

assets of their systems. All the data is captured dynamically, as an event is happening. Such data

banks are used to improve the quality of decision making and for producing management

information, reprts on all aspects of freight operations, without the need to collect past data,

every time. Thus this will help in making efficient utilization of resources and without any

hassles. FOIS will maintain data banks of all fixed and rolling stock assets of the IR with their

characteristic features, to help proper evaluation and optimization of their use. For this, FOIS

will have many sub-systems for handling individual activities. It has brought about a minimum

of 10% improvement in Wagon utilization and 5% improvement in Locomotive utilization. The


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traditional method of "Repetitive and periodic reporting" being followed at present by Indian

Railways for train operation is unable now to cope up with the ever increasing demand of public

transport coupled together with increase in speed and safety standards. To reap the benefit of

explosion in IT worldwide and also to take the advantage of liberalized policy of Government of

India towards Information Technology, Indian Railways have establish a Corporate Wide

Information System (CWIS) between Railway Board, Zonal Railways Head Quarters,

Production Units and Centralized Training Institutes, etc. called as ""RAILNET". It will be able

to provide smooth flow of Information on demand for administrative purposes from the

important operational locations up to top level and vice-versa, which will help in taking quicker

and better decisions.


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Chapter-3

RAILNET

The Indian Railways is Asia's largest and the world's second largest rail network. Adopting e-

Governance in right earnest and to reap the benefit of IT explosion, Indian Railways have

established a 'Corporate Wide Information System' (CWIS) called RAILNET. It provides smooth

flow of information on demand for administrative purposes, which would enable taking quicker

and better decisions.

Realizing the important role that information plays in customer services and in railways

operations, IR had embarked on its computerization program. IR developed a dedicated skeletal

communication network, as a basic requirement for train operation. After the early introductionof basic computer applications e.g. Pay rolls, Inventory Control and Operating Statistics,

Railways went for deployment of computers for productivity improvement through building up

operational databases.

RAILNET has the potential for transfer of messages, files, and e-mails between the important

locations on Indian Railways. In addition, the internal web site in Railway Board and Zonal

Railways Headquarters supports codes, manual procedure orders, policy directives and other

important information for day-do-day use by various officials. Detailed estimate amounting to

Rs.7.81 crore for the work of RAILNET was sanctioned in Nov.98 b y the Railway Board. The

structure of RAILNET is as under:


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RAILNET will provide computer connectivity between Railway Board and Zonal Railways,

Production Units, Centralized Training Institutes, RDSO, CORE, MTP/Calcutta & 46 Major

Training Institutes.

3.1 Need-Problems with Transfer of Messages & Files

Manual system of transfer of messages & files are time consuming & unbelievably slow. Sometime the messages are illegible (due to poor photocopy quality or poor hand

writing)

The messages sometimes do not reach the concerned person.Sender is not sure whether the message has reached the correct person

3.2 Tools Provided By Railnet

Email EDI WWW

Telnet FTP

3.3 Objectives


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Eliminate the need to move paper documents between different offices Change from Periodic Reporting to Information on Demand Expedite & facilitate quick & efficient automatic status update between Railway Board &

Zonal Railways

3.4 Architecture

To have internet access at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata. Capability to monitor & control usage of RAILNET & Internet. Expedite & facilitate quick & efficient automatic status updates between Railway Board

Zonal Railways.

3.5 Phases Of Railnet

2.5.1 Phase - I

This consisted of interconnecting LANS at the following locations:

Railway Board Existing Zonal Railway Headquarter Production Units Clw / Chittaranjan

Dcw / Patiala Dlw / Varanasi ICF / Perambur Rcf / Kapurthala


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W & Ap/ BangaloreThe contract for Phase-I was awarded to M/S Tata Infotech Limited. The scope of work included

Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning of Servers, Routers, Centralized Switches,

Modems etc. including Internet/Intranet software. The work has been completed except for NFR,

DLW and DCW because of non-availability of site/connectivity.

3.5.2 Phase - II (Completed)

This consists of interconnecting LANS at the following locations:

New zones (6 nos.) Rdso / Lucknow Core, Allahabad Mtp , Calcutta Centralized training institutes

Rsc/ Vadodara Irieen / Nasik Irimee / Jamalpur Iriset / Secunderabad Iricen / Pune

This phase will also consist of the following centers to facilitate interconnections:

Major training centres (46) Zonal training centres (9)

Supervisor training centres(9) S&T training centres (9)


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Electrical training centres (9) Civil training centres (9)

RPF training centre (1)

3.5.3 PhaseIII (Sanctioned)

This phase will interconnecting LANS at the following locations:

All Sub DivisionHqs

Mechnical Loco C&WStores Depots Major Stations


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Passenger Complaint Centers Workshops


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Chapter-4

Railtel Corporation of I ndia Limi ted

Railways have various communication needs. It is very important for railways to have a reliable

communication system since it is essential for efficient and safe operations of trains. As such,

formation of Broadband Telecom and Multimedia Corporation was considered by Ministry of

Railways. The Corporation registered as Railtel Corporation of India Limited was incorporated

in September 2000.

4.1 Communication Requirements for Railways

1. The primary requirement is for control and block communication. Controlcommunication is required for monitoring from central control office; the running of

trains

2. Administrative communication requirements that include: Connecting divisional headquarters with important stations Connecting Zonal headquarters with the divisions Connecting Railway Board with Zones Emergency communication for crew of disabled train to talk to section controllers.3. Use of communication channels for data transmission for: Passenger Reservation System Freight Operation Information System Management Information System Passenger Information System Railnet

Thus, as can be seen from above, it is very essential for Railways to have an efficient

communication system. Since DOT was unable to meet the stringent requirements of Railways

communication, Railways have started developing their own communication network.

4.2 Objectives of Railtel

Following are the main objectives of Railtel Corporation


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1. To modernize railways train control, operational and safety systems and networks.

2. To create a nationwide broadband telecom and multimedia network to supplement national

telecom infrastructure to spur growth of telecom internet and IT enabled value services in all

parts of the country specially rural, remote and backward areas.

3. To generate the revenues needed for implementing Railways developmental projects, safety

enhancement and asset replacement programs.

4. To significantly contribute to realization of goals and objectives of National Telecom Policy,

1999.

4.3 Demand Potential

Demand in long distance telecom market is geographically dispersed. Demand for long distance

voice and data traffic is expected to grow on account of the following reasons:

Increase in number of telephone subscribers - both fixed and mobile Additional facilities like internet, WAP being provided to mobile users will lead to an

increase in the demand for bandwidth

Opening of domestic long distance traffic for competition and reduction in long distancetariffs

Increase in data traffic due to rise in internet subscribers and due to value added serviceslike video conferencing etc.

Bandwidth Demand

CAGR 2000(GPS) 2005(GPS) 2000(INR Cr.) 2005 (INR Cr.)

Total Market 59% 18 186 801 3145

ISP 116% 3 142 286 2284

NLDO 28% 4 13 472 680

Basic Intra circle 17% 10 23

Cellular 52% 1 8 43 181

4.4 Business Financials and Revenue Model for Railtel

Following are the main features of the revenue model of Railtel.

Revenues: Revenues to Railtel comprise of Wholesale Bandwidth sale revenues andServices Revenues. Wholesale Bandwidth sale revenues constitute revenues from sale of


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capacity for long distance voice, sale of capacity to ISPs, sale of capacity to Cellular

operators and sale of capacity for corporate leased lines. Services revenues include

revenues derived from services to NLDO, Corporate leased lines, Corporate VPN and

revenue from retail ISP to corporates. Total Revenues for Railtel were 61.66 crores in

2001 and are grown to Rs. 1660 crores in 2005 and to Rs.2372 crores in 2007.

Profits: Railtel is expected to have negative EBITDA i.e. cash loss to the extent of Rs.39crores in 2001. However, it is expected to have cash profit from 2002 onwards. EBITDA

is expected to rise from Rs.298 crores in 2002 to Rs.1137 crores in 2005 and to Rs.1680

crores in 2007. Railtel is expected to suffer total loss to the extent of Rs.201 crores in

2001. It is expected to have Earnings after tax of Rs.53 crores in 2002 that are expected

to increase to Rs.389 crores in 2005 and to Rs.779 crores in 2007.

Net Present Value (NPV): The potential of RCIL in terms of NPV has been assessed atRs. 2,775 Crores

Return on equity: On the basis of revenue plan developed on the basis of option asmentioned earlier, return on equity is expected to be 24% by Year 2005.

4.5 Competitor Analysis

The following parameters will be utilized to evaluate the competition that RCIL may face in the

future.

Facil i ties Assessment

The facilities for long distance communication are switches, transmission media and

transmission systems. Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) offers advantages over other transmission

media for DLD carriage.

Right of Way (RoW)

Deployment of OFC requires access to space along the routes, since it is a terrestrial medium.

OFC can be laid underground or strung along poles and either option requires access to ways

along routes. Further, an entity requires Rights of Way (RoW), if it has to deploy OFC along a

route. RoW is a critical asset since it entails costs and time spent on obtaining approvals from

various authorities

A. DOT


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As per DoT Perspective Plan, the OFC deployment in the country is envisaged to double

over the next five years. Capacities planned in long distance infrastructure during the plan

period are indicated in the following table.

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Coaxial(rKm.) 28439 29287 30526 30957 30957

Microwave(rKm) 40347 43730 48697 51793 54597 72592

Optical Fibre(rKm) 9960 16891 23333 36639 52439 76261

DoT has stopped using coaxial in its LD infrastructure, and only OFC and Digital Microwave

(DMW) is being used.

B. Cellular Operators

Cellular operators have around 9,788 Rkm of digital microwave network. They have indicated

individual plans to lay OFC network in their service areas, which collectively totals 12,000 Rkm.

S.No. Circle Operator Proposed (Rkm)

1 Maharastra BPL 30000

2 Gujrat Fascel 1500

3 Andhra Pradesh Tata Cellular 880

4 Kerala BPL 1300

5 Madhya Pradesh RPG 1000

6 Uttar Pradesh(E) Aircell DigiLink 1015

7 Haryana Aircell DigiLink 385

8 Tamil Nadu BPL 1600

9 Rajasthan Aircell DigiLink 1295

10 Total 11975

Based on information provided by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), only RPG,

Tata Cellular and Fascel have indicated 50 percent of their existing capacity as spare. Further,

states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Kerala have two licensed operators while others


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have only one. All the operators have plans for installing OFC networks within their circles. The

planned OFC infrastructure is given in the following table.

4.6 SWOT- RailTel

Strengths:

1. RailTels main strength is the Right of Way that railways have. This RoW covers a very wide

area and connects all the major cities in India. As such, Railways has advantage over its

competitors like basic cellular services operators in terms of the coverage.

2. Railways have considerable experience in handling the communication networks since it has

been handling the communication and signal equipment for internal use.

3. RailTel has been established as a separate corporation under the Companies Act. As such, it

has advantage of operating as a corporation separate from Railways.

Weaknesses: Though railways have the experience of handling communication network,

it does not have the prior experience of commercial handling of telecommunications

network.

Opportunities: RailTel has a good opportunity in terms of the projected growth in the market.

Threats:

1. Technological obsolescence due to newer technologies evolving in OFC

2. Government Policies may not remain favorable

4.7 Current Status

1. During the year under report, the utilization of RailTels network has increasedconsiderably. RailTel has leased 42 Gbps capacity by end of 2008-09, as compared to 28

Gbps during the previous financial year.

2. During the year under report, RailTel has continued to acquire more customers. RailTel ispresently providing services to major Basic Service Operators and Cellular Service

Operators like AirTel, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea Cellular, TTSL/TTML, Reliance Telecom,

Spice, etc. RailTel is also providing services to internet service providers, print and


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electronic media, MSO cable operators etc. In addition, RailTel is also targeting

corporate VPN market and expects to grow VPN business from banks, corporate and

academic institutions.

3. The year 2008-09 has been an eventful year for RailTel alongwith BSNL and PGCILbeing entrusted with the job of creating National Knowledge Network. Since then, phase

I has already been rolled out and has also been inaugurated by Honble President of India.

RailTel is also a under consideration of the Govt. for the creation of education grid under

National Mission on Education being built by Ministry of HRD. RailTel has recently

been awarded by the Honble Union Minister for Communications & IT for excellence in

providing application services in social sector.

4. RailTel has also already signed Point of Interconnect agreements with most of the Telcosfor launch of its NLD operations.

5. Financial PositionsTable: Key Financial Figures

Particulars INR Cr.

Operating Results 2008-09 2007-08

Operating Turnover 386.44 199.65

Operating Expenditure 222.42 76.15

PBIT 164.02 124.49

Int. on Loan 19.53 23.41

Depriciation 41.82 38.94

PBT 102.67 56.14


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References

http://www.rb.railnet.gov.in/

http://www.indianrail.gov.in/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/irfca_faq/

http://www.trainweb.com/indiarail/

http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~prathabk/egovernance/egov_success_stories_railnet.html

http://www.indiainfoline.com/infrastructure.htm

http://www.economictimes.com/

http://www.hindustantimes.com

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