The India Railways manages the fourth largest network in the world, carrying 8.26 billion passengers and transports 1.16 billion tons of freight yearly as of fiscal year 2018. In a country that is so vast and diverse, Indian Railways unites us by making it easier for us to travel through the length and breadth of the country. However, Indian Railways were operating like a socialist era institution for decades and therefore modern technology and management was not introduced. But now under the leadership of Piyush Goyal, Indian railways are getting a complete overhaul. The optimal use of Information Technology (IT) is being introduced in Indian Railways to make it time and resource efficient.
IT has helped railways to modernize various operations and to reach the remotest locations of the country. The introduction of e-ticketing of unreserved tickets has made life easier for a regular traveler of suburban railway networks like Mumbai Suburban railway. The facility was introduced in 2015 and since has grown exponentially. The railways have also introduced various apps the ‘IRCTC Tourism App for Android Phones’ to book holiday packages. Some more apps introduced by Indian railways Menu on Rails, Rail MADAD, Apoorti App, Clean my Coach, IRCTC Rail Connect, UTS App, SFOORTI App, and Rail Saarthi. The transportation giant also revamped and made it more user-friendly. Many new measures were introduced on the website including improved filtering, waitlist prediction, new filters and multi-stage platform usages. The railway is also introducing digital library and will introduce 22 digital screens in different locations to showcase India’s rail heritage to a global audience via Virtual Reality, Videos, Audio Clips, and Pictures.
The miscommunication between railway stations and trains coupled with poor monitoring caused delays. Indian Railways have introducing Realtime Train Information System by using satellites to overcome this. Railway has also increased e-ticketing capacity over the years. In 2014, the e-ticketing capacity was limited to 2,000 per minute and within four years it reached 20,000 per minute. To encourage digital transactions railways have installed point of Sale (POS) machines. At present 9,100 POS machines are installed at various stations and SBI has been mandated to install another 10,000 machines. To get rid of corruption railways introduced Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS) which is the largest government to business portal in the country. So far 90,000 vendors have registered on IREPS website and 4,44,000 e-tenders valuing more than Rs. 1, 50,000 crore were issued. Modi government also delivered on the installation of Wi-Fi routers collaborating with private companies like Google. So far more than 700 railway stations across the country had been enabled with Wi-Fi.
For decades railway was an overtly bureaucratic regime. Only a person from outside the Lutyens circuit could solve the problems the railways faced. Piyush Goyal is known for thinking ‘out of the box’ and providing innovative solutions to complex problems. He could be entrusted for the complete overhaul of Indian railways. His ministry was at the forefront of bringing ‘corporate work ethics’ in government jobs. Piyush Goyal has had a long tenure as a corporate executive and he was opposed to the lackadaisical and what is infamous as the ‘bureaucratic attitude’ of the railway employees. Under his leadership, the ‘Ache Din’ of railways has truly become a reality.