A Role of e-governance in IRCTC

By Dr. Keyur M. Nayak (Associate Professor, Laxmi institute of Management, Sarigam) Poonam P. Yadav (Assistant Professor, Laxmi Institute Of Management, Sarigam)

E-governance can be defines as use of information & communication by government to enhance the range, quality of information & services provided to the citizen in a cost effective manner. Any of the organization needs the support of IT and governances. And when it comes to government sector, nowadays it is a must to get the support of electronic media for the successful operation. E-governance in Indian Railway has contributed much since it has being introduced. Many of the things has being enhanced with the help of E-governance, many new innovation and improvement has being introduced Indian Railway. The Indian Railways is Asia's largest and the world's second largest rail network. Indian railway had adopted the egovernance in right manner to get the advantage of IT explosion. With the help of e-governance, information flows smoothly for the administrative purpose, which enables for making good and quick decisions. IR understands the important role of information that plays in service and other operation of railways, after this IR has started the computerization program. Initially, only basics of computer application were introduced such as payrolls, inventory control and operation, then after the successful implementation of the basic application, other operational application has being implemented to cater the services in good and smooth manner. An Indian railway has introduced a very user friendly website for the customer as well as its other operations. Many other IT application has being implemented for the internal as well as the external operation of the Indian railways. Now, the Indian railway has is governing all the operational function with the help of information system very smoothly and quickly. BACKGROUND Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is a Public Sector Enterprise under Ministry of Railways. IRCTC was incorporated on 27th September, 1999 as an extended arm of the Indian Railways to upgrade, professionalize and manage the catering and hospitality services at stations, on trains and other locations and to promote domestic and international tourism through development of budget hotels, special tour packages, information & commercial publicity and global reservation systems. While discharging its mandate, the Company has made a significant mark in its passenger-services oriented business lines like setting up of Food Plazas on Railway premises, Railneer', Rail Tour Packages and Internet Ticketing' bringing great deal of professionalism into the operations. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

Corporate Office of IRCTC is situated at New Delhi , which is headed by the Managing Director. Managing Director is being assisted by three Directors, Director(Catering Services), Director(Tourism & Marketing) and Director(Finance) and nine Group General Managers. For smooth operations of the business across all over the country, five Zonal Offices are working at Delhi , Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai & Secunderabad. South Zone Office is headed by Regional Director and all other Zonal Offices are headed by Group General Managers. All Group General Managers have vast experience of working in Indian Railways. These Zonal Offices are assisted by ten Regional Offices at Lucknow , Chandigarh , Jaipur, Bhubneshwar, Guwahati, Patna , Bhopal , Ahemedabad, Bangalore and Ernakulam, which are headed by Chief Regional Managers / Regional Managers. MANPOWER: At present IRCTC has 4453 employees (as on 31st December, 2009) on its roll. The employees comprise of IRCTC Direct Employees, Deemed Deputation absorbees, Deemed Deputationists, deputationists and fixed term employees. For bringing professionalism in the work culture, IRCTC has recruited professionals in different field like HR, Tourism, Catering and Finance, through direct recruitment or campus recruitment. MAIN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IRCTC's main business activities are : On Board Catering Services and Static catering units on the Indian Railway Network: Manufacturing Packaged Drinking Water for Indian Railway Passengers, Food Safety Audit Managing the Departmental Catering units, taken over from Indian Railways.

Information technology playing vital role in the process of Indian Railways

Passenger Reservation System (PRS) CONCERT (Country-wide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing), Indian Railways fully automated PRS software, is a complex online distributed transaction application based on client server architecture interconnecting the regional computing system into a National PRS grid. The salient features of CONCERT software include allowing passenger from anywhere to do a booking for a journey in any train in any class from anywhere to anywhere; handling reservation, modifications cancellation/refunds. On an average more than 2,03,000 tickets are sold through IRCTC's website in a day. By doing this, IRCTC is not only saving the time of the public but also saving their cost of travelling to these centers. For Railways it is saving on their infrastructure like buildings, air-conditioning, electricity, furniture, staff etc. e-Ticketing The popularity of an e-ticket can be gauged from the fact that it accounts for 98 percent of online rail reservations today. The primary reason behind this raging popularity of the e-ticket is its user-friendly approach. Working professionals who are constantly on the move benefit tremendously from this facility. They can book the ticket while travelling and only need a valid identification document to authenticate their identity during the journey. CRIS (Centre for Railway Information System) has successfully developed the Internet ticketing solution launched by IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation). The effort involved interfacing the IRCTC front end with backend PRS Alpha servers, writing procedures for search and queries at the backend, ticket printing on existing clients and accounting software.

Complaint Management System A toll free no. 1800-111-139 has been launched for swift redressal of complaints & suggestions conveyed by passengers on phone. Passengers can call this no. from train as well without any charges & register their grievance/suggestion. In order to facilitate another option of lodging complaint/suggestion by passenger, facility of receipt of complaint through SMS on phone number 9971-111-139 has been started. This will enable the traveling passengers to have easy access to the complaints redressal system without any other charges. On-line Complaint Management System has been introduced to facilitate the passengers for lodging their online complaint by logging on our website at . Complaint is sent directly to the concerned licensee for immediate submission of comments. A unique complaint number is allotted to the complainant for viewing the status by the complainant at any time. An auto-generated reply with the unique complaint number is sent to the complainant mail id. This system is also assessable with all the Zonal/Regional/Corporate Officers. Quality Control To maintain quality of services onboard trains, IRCTC has set up control rooms at New Delhi , Mumbai, Kolkata,

Chennai and Secunderabad. These Zonal Controls have been strengthened and equipped with phone, fax & PC with broadband connectivity, and are operational around the clock, seven days a week. Central Control office at New Delhi regularly coordinates with all the five zonal offices for effective monitoring of the complaints & catering activities. UTS (Unreserved Ticket System) UTS is the complete solution for computerized unreserved ticketing from dedicated counter terminals and replaces manual Printed Card Tickets/Excess Fare Tickets/Blank Paper Tickets. In future, ticketing from handheld terminals smart card, automatic vending machines, etc. is also envisaged IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) IVRS is a telephonic enquiry system which information such as Passenger Name Record (PNR) enquiry, Train Arrival/Departure information enquiry through NTES, and Berth availability position in any train, in multiple languages. NTES (National Train Enquiry System) NTES provides arrival/departure as well as current status information about any passenger train in the entire Indian Railways. NTES is parallel to PRS. The servers are located at five metros i.e. Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Secunderabad and all are interconnected. Entries are made regarding running of train every half an hour at various locations including divisional headquarter all over the Indian Railways. NTES is used by IVRS and other web enabled services and mobile services for providing train information to the public. Rail Budget Compilation System (RBCS) CRIS has developed RBCS for collecting budgetary inputs from the different zones and production units of the Indian Railways. The system facilitates capturing of data, building of database, analysis of demands and pruning of the estimates for inclusion in the Railway Budget. Besides MIS reports, the system enables printing of budget documents in bilingual, Hindi and English. This system is implemented at 88 locations spread over Zonal Railways and Production Units apart from Railway Board. Comprehensive Payroll Processing System (CPPS) CPPS is a comprehensive bilingual package generating monthly salary bills including Incentive Bonus Calculation and Labour Accounting modules and pay slips in Hindi. Vigilance Software System (VSS) VSS is designed for the requirements of Vigilance Department of Indian Railways and has been implemented in all the Vigilance Departments of Indian Railway Zonal Headquarters. VSS maintains information about vigilance

cases/complaints includes various reports, forwarding letters generated by Vigilance Department and keeps track of Receipt. Material Management Information System for P-Way material (MMIS) This package is for the requirements of Civil Engineering department of Indian Railways and helps the users in accounting' stores for P-Way materials. Special emphasis has been given to scrap disposal. Comprehensive Accounting & Transaction System (CATS) CATS has been designed with common database to address functionalities for both personnel and Finance Departments. CATS contain two major modules Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS). Managing all India Railway Enquiry Call Centre, IRCTC is managing a Call Center for passenger enquiry. A customer can dial 139 from anywhere in the country and get all information from Call Center related to train timing, PNR confirmation, train routes and other relevant information related to Indian Railways.