INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATING DEPARTMENT FREIGHT OPERATION INFORMATION SYSTEM:-
1. The Indian railway carries nearly 900 million tons of freight in a year. This translates to about 5000 freight trains daily. Freight trains bring two thirds of the Indian Railway revenues and are referred to as the bread earners for the Railways. The major commodities carried by Indian railway are coal, Iron ore, Food grains, Iron and Steel, Cement, Petroleum products, Fertilizer and containerized traffic. There are specialized wagons to handle the transportation needs of the different types commodities unlike passenger carrying trains, freight trains do not run to a fixed schedule and thus making freight operations a highly information intensive activity. Based on this information managers make allocation decisions continually to dynamically optimize utilization of resources like wagons, loco motives, crew and paths on the network. Real time information allows good decision making and thus censures high levels of mobility within the system.
2. The freight operations information system (FOIS) was the first project which CRIS embarked upon. In fact the creation of CRIS is a by product of this effort in the mid eighties. FOIS began as an application to track and monitor the movement of wagons, loco motives and unit trains. Now it is a complete management module for freight trains handling the billing and revenue collections as well. It has played a major role in the improved wagon productivity on Indian Railway and the objective is to use the information to further improve productivity, customer services and thus meet the needs of a rapidly growing economy.
3. FOIS is used for increasing efficiency in management and control over operations. This system was initiated by CRIS in the eighties. This system has been adopted through high capacity computers to provide accurate and instant access over operation of goods trains run on BG under FOIS, a high capacity computer to provide accurate and instant access over operation of goods trains run on BG. Under FOIS, a high capacity computer is used, called central system computer. It is linked with the computers of Zonal Railways and field terminals, with which data can be transferred easily.
4. It is an on-line system which provides instant information about the movement of consignment to freight customers. Authorized users of this system such as CYMs, TNCs and DY. CHCs and CGSs operate through ARC and enquiry terminals. Network of this system is operated through OFC digital channel and terrestrial and VSAT channels leased by BSNL. It is developed through two modules.
5. A part from monitoring the movement of freight trains, the system calculates freight and other charge based on complex rules of business and generates the railway receipt, the bill payable by the shipper. Today electronic collection of freight has reached an astounding figure of Rs 100crores (US$ 20 million) per day. The system has the capability of tracking and tracing consignments and publication of information to the end users. To bring in greater transparency, Indian railway have begun automatic allotment of rakes to customers for select commodities based on priority rules, operational restrictions, an commercial agreement. Services are provided to major customers by integrating FOIS with their legacy systems. It is capable of keeping record of asset ownership and maintenance, which is now being integrated to an SAP based asset maintenance management system. Most importantly, it also generates performance reports for terminals train movements, asset use, financial statement and their trends over time that have been used for bringing about systemic improvements.
6.
I. RMS (Rake management system)
II. TMS (Terminal management system).
7. RMS: - RMS software was developed in two phases, P1 module and P2 module. The important functions of this system are:-
I. Planning of load, ordering of trains, formation of rakes, and information of arrival and departure of trains.
II. Forecast of interchange, diversion, stabling of load, detention of trains, predeparture detention of trains.
III. BPC, Crew details, light engine movement, placement and release of piecemeal sick and fit report of piecement etc.
8. TMS – TMS software was developed in third phase. The important functions of this system are:-
I. Planning of programmed traffic.
II. Demand and forwarding note, advance registration fee particulars of restrictions.
III. Generation of RR, calculation of freight, removal of wagons calculation of wharf age and demurrage.
IV. Particulars of loading and unloading, diversions, rebooking.
V. Account maintenance and e-payment etc.
9. Advantage of FOIS :-
I. Optimum utilization of available resources.
II. Reduction in the maintenance cost.
III. Control over unconnected wagons.
IV. Minimization of claims.
V. Control and supervision over rakes.
VI. Easy decision making based on factual information.
VII. Watch over availability of rolling stock and their optimum utilization.
VIII. Control over mistakes and quick and transparent working.
IX. Customer satisfaction due to advance information of rakes and planning.
X. Useful in increasing operating efficiency.
ICMS- INTEGRATED COACHING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
1. Millions of passenger book their journeys everyday with the confidence that when their rolls up on the appointed day, it would bring a coach which has place for Railways need to track over 50 thousand coaches. By efficiently deploying the fleet, railways are able to run more services for the benefit of their passengers, while minimizing any chance of disruption and disappointment IR also must ensure that these assets receive timely servicing and maintenance. Depending upon the need, the system can deliver historical records from past years in printed reports or up-to-the-minute information on an official’s cell phone. The integrated coach management system does exactly all this and more. There are three modules that give a comprehensive view to the managers and facilitate quick identification of available resources and their allocation as per the requirement. The important modules are COIS, PAM, CMM.
2. The COIS (coaching operations information system) module of this application provides detailed, real time information for planning, executing and monitoring the operations of passenger services. since the system is aware of the plans, it requires minimal data input. Even this input is easy because the users can literally drag and drop coaches in a virtual representation of their yards.
3. Another module, called the CMM or coach maintenance management module, has been developed to facilitate and record maintenance of coaches and the management of spare parts inventory. It is fully integrated with the operations modules for generating alerts, interchange for repairs, delivery and acknowledgement of certification of coaches for service, etc.
4. The punctuality analysis and monitoring (PAM) module of ICMS automatically picks up the delays from the control office application (COA) and produces real-time insight into the state of the operations. The system provides consistent and accurate reports for all level of management form the operative to the strategic. Since ICMS already has most of the related information it is the natural place to also monitor and analyze the punctual running of trains.
CONTROL OFFICE APPLICATION:-
1. Train operations on the Indian railways are controlled and monitored by the control rooms in each of the seventy seven divisional offices. The control room is the nerve center of the division. The fluidity of train movement on the efficiency of the control room operations. The control office, by its very nature never shuts down and works all hours of the day and every day of the week. The control office application has changed the way the trains are monitored as trains movements are captured in real time and movement of scheduled and unscheduled trains planned and controlled through the computer aided interface.
2. The control office application is the latest addition to trains operations related IT applications along with fright operations information system(FOIS), COA has led to all information on train operations being computer generated. It is this application that feeds the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) that provides passengers up to date information on train running. The objective of the Indian railways is to further improve the operations by using technological aids that enable quicker data capture and intelligent applications that provide better planning and forecasting tools.
3. The application requires the controllers to enter data related to the train operations as they received information from the control points or stations. The application charts the running of the train in a section(a portion of the divisional network) and also generates the advance forecast based on various operational parameters. The train is then virtually handed over to the adjacent division as per its physical movement to maintain continuous flow of information.
4. The key feature of the application includes the ability of the controller to order trains, view all possible routes, divert or re-route trains if required. The application has the facility for capturing and viewing details of consist or composition of the trains, details of the crew and locomotive. Reporting o unusual events is enabled through the user friendly interface. There is also a chart that shows details of line occupancy, caution orders and abnormal working one of the key elements of the application is the ability to forecast or extrapolate the running of trains which allows the controller to plan better. For managerial supervision the charts can be printed apart from the fact that structured MIS reports are also generated. COA has been designed such as it can be integrated with any other application. The National Train Enquiry system (NTES), the Punctuality Analysis Module (PAM), and freight operations information system are all integrated through enterprise Application integration software. UTS, PRS, NTES.
5. SATSANG – (Software Aided Train Scheduling and Network Governance) many people find it extremely fascinating to pore over the Railway time table, especially while undertaking a train journey. The route that the train traverses through, the stations en route both significant and lesser known ones, the timings and the stoppages all these are part of the romance of train journey. The time table is something like the compass was for the early traveler or the star studded night sky for the seafarer. Creating a time table for trains on a busy network like the Indian Railways is an extremely challenging task. Planners on the Zonal Railways work independently and the collaboratively with other zonal level planners to design the All India time table. The two main objectives are that it should be convenient to the passenger and feasible to run on the system. Introducing new train services and augmenting older ones is an art and a select group of planners are highly skilled in this task. Indian Railways decided to provide software tools to aid the planning process. The Software Aided Train Scheduling and Network Governance (SATSANG) project is entrusted with the task of building such a tool. The entire resource allocation process will now be aided by the tool leading to more efficient allocations and robust time table.
6. Crew management system- Indian Railways, the largest employer of the world, crew Management System (CMS) application managing its crew for operating trains on the largest rail network in the world. CMS project deals with all categories of train crew. Who are required to operate a train on Indian Railway. Objective:- CMS application aims at
I. Optimum and effective utilization of crew through monitoring of mandatory requirements.
II. Effective scheduling and assignment of train crew.
III. Schedule rests (12/16) of the crew based on total duty hours completed.
IV. Paper less lobby – calls for booking through SMS, caution order, circular, sign on/off.
V. To generate computerized mileage report for direct submission to P branch for payments.
PASSENGER RESERVATION SYSTEM (PRS):
1. Reserved travel by Indian Railways is facilitated by the Passenger Reservation System (PRS).
2. The PRS Application CONCERT (Country-wide Network of Computerized Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing) is the world’s largest online reservation application, developed and maintained by CRIS.
3. The PRS is available at over 8000 counters in more than 2380 locations throughout the country, including all major stations, and important non-railhead locations such as tourist centres and district headquarters.
4. In addition to the railway counters, multiple delivery channels have been provided to Rail passengers to access the PRS services.
5. Enquiry services through Internet were launched in year 2000. Touch screen, IVRS and Display boards are enabled at major booking location for details on train accommodation availability.
6.I- Ticketing and E-ticketing and through Internet was launched in year 2002 and 2005 respectively. Booking through Post offices was launched in year 2007.Enquiry services through 139 were launched in year 2007. PRS ticketing through Mobile VAN (MushkilAssan) was launched in 2009.
7. PRS provides reservation services to nearly 1.5 to 2.2 million passengers a day on over 2500 trains running throughout the country.
8. The PRS services are available to passengers for 23:15 hours in a day.
9. Passengers can reserve a berth for any train 120 days in advance.
10. The system currently operates from 5 Data centres.
11. The server clusters are connected together by a core network that enables universal terminals across country, through which the travelling public can reserve a berth on any train, between any pair of station for any date and class.
12. PRS web site was awarded Web Ratna Platinum Icon Award in year 2009 under Citizen Centric Service category.
13. PRS application has been awarded by Computer Society of India for best IT usage in the year 1999
