IT in Indian Railways MIS

Information Technology in Indian Railways

Name: Rahul U. Mondkar

Roll No: 09810053

Abstract

The Indian Railways has one of the busiest rail networks in the world, transporting 20 million
passengers and 2 million tons of freight daily. It is one of the world's largest commercial or
utility employers, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse the length and
breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than
63,327 kilometers. The Indian Railways as an institution forms the backbone of the nation. But
considering that India inherited 53,996 kilometers of rail network, India has been slow on the
expansion of this great institution. Going forward, the Indian Railways is a great opportunity for
the nation to build an important pillar of Indian infrastructure. This paper examines the role
Information Technology has played and can play in the modernization of Indian Railways.

1. Introduction: Indian Railways

An efficient railway system is essential for the economic health of the nation. The railways weld
the different parts of the country together, transporting its armed forces, providing postal
services, and is therefore instrumental in the industrial development of India, carrying the raw
materials like petroleum, coal, fertilizers, cement, steel and food grains. Railways are the main
mode of communication for the citizens and goods of this vast country, which is 3,287,590
square kilometers in area with a population that is in excess of one billion. Indian Railways is an
organization with a history of 150 years.

At its peak the share of Railways in the freight segment was a high of 88 per cent, which has
decreased to less than 33 per cent now. The market share of the Railways in the passenger traffic
has also fallen sharply, from 72 per cent in 1950-51 to 16 per cent by 1998-99. Currently the
market share of Railways in the passenger traffic is 72 percent in and freight traffic is 33 percent.
The Railways has not been able to stand its ground and is losing out to the road sector, in the
main segment and to air in the premium segment.

Industrialization and further post industrialization there have been major changes in the freight
movement pattern of bulk commodities like coal, cement, fertilizers, and steel, POL (petrol, oil
& lubricants). The average lead of these commodities is reducing. Further there is a lateral shift
of this reduced lead is to the road. Another result of the deregulation of the road and air segment
is the improvement in the efficiencies of the road and air sector vis-à-vis the Railways and

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further erosion of its market share. Improvements in technology have had another outcome albeit
an indirect one. It has rendered large workforce redundant in the organizations .A mechanism
that has been effectively used by organizations to respond to the change in their environments
worldwide has been utilization of Information Technology.

The Information systems (IS) development in the Indian Railways started in the early 1960’s.
This was much ahead of its contemporaries. However the development of IS in IR has not kept
pace with the developments in the field of IT over time. It is, a general observation that
technology deployment does not keep pace with technology development. The same holds true
for ‘Information Technology. Indian Railways has implemented two enterprise wide information
systems. The online passenger reservation system – Country Wide Network for Computerized
Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing (CONCERT) and the Freight Operation Information
System – (FOIS), that is geared, to track the entire freight rolling stock of the Indian Railways.
But for an organization the size of Indian Railways, the level of IT use is minimal. Rudimentary
applications like payroll, inventory and accounts are the only ones that have been computerized.

The two enterprises wide Information Systems do not even scratch the shell of the organism –
Indian Railways. The online passenger reservation system, CONCERT deals with the customer
interface of providing reserved accommodation to passengers of Indian Railways. The FOIS is
an information system that manages the various operational aspects of freight movement across
the organization. A further evaluation of the above information systems would reveal that none
of the information systems tackles the core organizational areas of concern for Indian Railways,
like line capacity, maintenance of the assets of IR, the maintenance schedules of the assets, fuel
and energy efficiency, material procurement, project management, production units, human
resources development. The IS also does not tackle areas that are of crucial importance to IR -
like employee productivity, skills and training. In view of above, there is a scope for, a larger,
more comprehensive and a strong case for implementation of Information Systems across the
Indian Railways that include the above aspects.

The relationship between Organizations and Information Systems needs to be explored in the
Indian context. Specifically, the Indian Railways, which is a large, government, service
organization. Although the external threats are important the greatest threats to the Railways are
internal. The Railways operate under a centralized command system with minimal responsibility
to managers and imposes little commercial accountability.

The main threat facing Indian Railways is an outdated production led organizational structure. In
addition the railways have a very weak system of keeping track of interdepartmental
organizational events. The management information systems, cost accounting practices and
business planning systems are also gray areas, which need to be tackled. The Railways is one of
the most efficient arms of a largely bureaucratic government. The Indian Railways is one of the
nation’s oldest institutions and has a high component of ‘public service obligation’ in its goal. In

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addition it has the largest single unionized work force in the nation. The information systems
development in Indian Railways needs to be studied in such a milieu.

2. Data Collection and Analysis

Indian Railways has a large assets base and a large workforce. Both are dispersed across a big
geographical area. Hence large resources are required to develop and implement information
systems in such an organization. This requires a clear focus and a sustained effort without which
the resources allocated for information systems development can easily be lost in organizational
inertia because of thin spread of the resources over many information system development
initiatives. Therefore there is a need to conserve the resources – monetary, infrastructure and
manpower of the organization allocated for information system development and sustenance and
use them efficiently. Situation analysis is an important stage in information systems planning. In
situation analysis the current environment of the organization can be analyzed using any of the
following methods: - (i) Analyzing current business systems (ii) Analyzing current
organizational systems and (iii) Analyzing current information systems

3. IT Issues in IR:

3.1. Ineffective IT Strategy:

An IT strategy is vital for every organisation to ensure that the use of IT is aligned with the
mission and business strategies of the organisation and to establish inter se priorities for
computerisation of various applications within the scheduled time frame. The strategy would
also help set out milestones and identify responsibility centres. It was observed that the IT
strategy for development of standardised and uniform applications on the Indian Railways was
ineffective, leading to haphazard development of applications in zonal railways with overlapping
functions.

Recommendations:
Railways should draw up a well defined IT strategy plan clearly identifying the functional areas
requiring standard applications and those areas where applications could be developed locally by
zonal railways. The strategy plan should be in line with the business plan of the Railways and
should set out milestones.

3.2. Deficiencies in system development:

An understanding of the information requirements, system specifications and users’ requirements
from the application is a prerequisite for effective system development. It was seen that users
were not involved at the development stage and the applications developed were not
comprehensive.

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Recommendations:
Railways should ensure that users are involved at the development stage and the applications
developed address all operational requirements. Railways may formulate standard guidelines
addressing the aspects that should be taken into consideration for systems development in line
with the standard IT practices. Where applications are allowed to be developed locally, it should
be ensured that they are comprehensive and are implemented within a specified timeframe.

3.3. Deficient general controls:

General controls regulate the environment to administer and implement the range of applications
run on computers. General controls include the IT security policy, change management controls,
disaster recovery plans and environmental controls. It was observed that:
• The IT security was weak and both physical access and logical access controls were inadequate.
Organizational and management controls were weak and proper segregation of duties was not
ensured, enabling assistant programmers to access live data, which was fraught with risk.
• There was no system of documenting change requests and the changes carried out, which was
further complicated by the absence of an audit trail.
• There was no business continuity plan. The back-ups were neither tested regularly nor stored
off-site.
• Railways did not have an environment policy to dispose of e-waste and the obsolete or
unusable computer hardware were disposed off like any other ordinary scrap, posing grave
environmental and health hazards.

3.3.1 Inadequate IT security policy and safeguards

Information Systems security policy relates to safeguarding valuable assets/data against threats,
loss, misuse, unauthorised disclosure or damage. The IT security policy encompasses both
physical and logical access issues. Organisational and management controls provide for proper
and clearly defined levels of responsibility by adequate separation of duties within the
information processing environment. It was observed that:
• A documented security policy had not been framed and circulated among the users of MMIS on
SR and the Payroll and Provident Fund Accounting System of NER. Neither was any training
provided to the users.
• For proper physical security, the server as well as the terminals used by the administrators
should be physically separated from the other terminals. In the depots of SR, the server and the
operator terminals were located in the same cabin, thus, impinging on physical access and
security. So was the case with Lucknow division of NER, where the server and console operator
terminals were in the same cabin. On SER, patient registration by the HIMS was carried out in
the EDP room, thereby giving access to outsiders.
• On SR, all the workstations having access to the server had both floppy disk and CD ROM
drives. These had not been disabled, thereby increasing the risk of bypassing access control
software and unauthorised access to the server.
• There was no system of maintaining emergency passwords for use in unforeseen situations and
controls were not adequate to identify the users uniquely, to change passwords periodically and
to limit the number of invalid password attempts. On SR and SER, the system was not
deactivated automatically even after repeated unsuccessful attempts by unauthorised users,
thereby increasing the risk of hacking. On both DLW and SER, there was no laid down password

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policy for gaining access to the application, databases and operating system. User identifications
and passwords were being shared by multiple users to access all financial data and system
software rendering the system vulnerable to unauthorized access. On NER, data entry operators
did not have passwords and were allowed unrestricted access.
• In the absence of proper segregation of duties, the same user (Assistant Programmer) in RCF
had access to the live application environment and performed various activities such as analysis
of change requirement/request, development/coding work, testing, releasing of software
including amendments to the live data. RCF in reply (November 2006) stated that the staffing
pattern of IT Department comprised mainly of officers and assistant programmers and all the
development and maintenance assignments were performed by the Assistant Programmers under
proper supervision. The reply was not tenable since providing the Assistant Programmers with
access to live environment and permission to make changes to live data was fraught with risk and
was a significant control weakness. In DLW and SER too, there was no clear segregation of
duties and the roles of programmers and data entry operators was interchangeable.
• In DLW, no system was in vogue to protect the data during transmission from Wards to the
EDP section as well as from EDP to the Kolkata office. Protocol analysers, data transmission in
encrypt form, essential for network security were not being used, thus, exposing the network to
risk of access by unauthorised users, DLW agreed to implement the web server security.

Recommendations:
Railways need to strengthen the security of the IT systems, particularly the access to the systems
comprising both physical access as well as logical access, with a clear password policy, user id
management and segregation of duties.

3.3.2 Lack of change management controls

A good system needs to provide for changes in a well defined manner. The change needs to be
documented, approved by the appropriate levels, thoroughly tested and then stabilised. No record
was maintained either of the change requests or of the changes carried out, which was further
complicated by the absence of an audit trail. In the absence of documentation/evidence, it was
not clear whether the changes made were appropriate and were duly authorised thereby exposing
the systems to risk (SR, DLW and RCF). In RCF, there was no documented procedure for
effecting changes in the software, though ISO 9001 certification on quality assurance for the IT
department had been obtained. In a majority of cases, changes in the application software were
without user approvals. Delays in effecting changes were also noticed. For instance, the new
pension scheme introduced from 1 January 2004 was given effect to only from April 2005 in the
software at RCF. RCF, in reply, stated that a committee for change management has been formed
and its recommendations would be implemented after acceptance by the competent authority.
However, the procedures for change management need to form part of the initial planning itself
and cannot be introduced in an ad hoc manner.

Recommendations:
The procedures for carrying out changes in system environment and steps to be taken in case of
disruption of processing should be laid down clearly to ensure minimal effect on the business of
the Railways in line with the importance of the applications. The application specific policy
needs to be dovetailed with the organisational policy in each critical area.

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3.3.3 Lack of business continuity and disaster recovery plans
A disaster recovery plan is vital for an organisation to cope with the loss of operational capability
due to unforeseen contingencies and to safeguard the IT assets from other disruptions. It is also
essential that the disaster recovery tools should be constantly tested and updated. On any of the
Railways reviewed, there was no business continuity plan and the back-ups were not tested
regularly. The back-ups were also not stored off-site. On SR and SER, the backup data was
stored in the same room housing the Information Processing Facility (IPF). Even such basic
precautions such as timely refilling of fire extinguishers, had not been carried out. The systems
were, therefore, exposed to the risk of serious threat in the event of a disaster (SR and DLW).

Recommendations:
Railways need to draw a structured business continuity and disaster recovery plan with off-site
back up sites for business continuity as well as data storage. A procedure needs to be prescribed
for obtaining back up regularly as well as testing the stored data.

4. Case Study: Simplified customer-oriented information technology for railways in

developing countries-the experience of Tanzania Railways Corporation

Tanzania Railways Corporation implemented the Rail Tracker system in 1999. RailTracker is a
computerized wagon, locomotive and train reporting system that tracks cargo and wagons
throughout their movement. It thus increases the efficiency of freight operations, enabling
railways to plan the movement of wagons much more effectively since they always know where
the wagons are and whether they are empty, loaded and fit for running. This improves short-term
train planning since it is possible to know when empties will be available, and enables rolling
stock and motive power to be maintained on the basis of up-to-date records of equipment use.
RailTracker also enables the railways to satisfy customers' requests for information about the
whereabouts of their goods at any given time. In addition, it generates statistics and performance
indicators for decision-making.

The RailTracker system has various modules that perform certain functions. The following is
a brief description of those modules:

1. Traffic Operations module

This is the main module in the RailTracker system. It is used to record all the operations of
rolling stock and consignments such as train movements, traffic operations, operations in respect
of consignments and those related to vehicles. The RailTracker databases are updated via this
module.

2. RailStats module
This module produces various statistics and performance indicators used by railway management
to manage and control the operations of the railway. Policy makers can also use these indicators
to formulate both short- and long-term plans for the transport sector.

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3. Customer module
This module is used by railway customers to monitor the whereabouts of their consignments by
connecting to the RailTracker system from their premises using a modem and telephone line.
The information which the customer receives is filtered so that he can see only his own
consignments. The module is now available on the Internet for on-line viewing from anywhere in
the world.

4. Wagon turnaround module

The wagon turnaround module computes wagon turnaround for available wagons during the
reporting period.

5. Fuel consumption module

This module is used to monitor the fuel consumption of each locomotive in the railway system
per driver and per issuing depot for a particular period.

6. Reporting module
The reporting module is used to produce predefined reports from the system. The reports can
either be viewed on the screen or printed on the printer.

7. Railway representative module

The railway representative module is used to enable foreign railway representatives to trace
vehicles pertaining to their railway or a consignment to/from their network while they are on a
foreign network.

8. The read only module

As the name implies, the read only module is used only to view information from the system. No
system update can be done from this module.

RailTracker Functions:
Various activities are carried out in order to ensure transport on a railway network. In order to
collect and process information produced by railway activities, a breakdown of those activities
into elementary activities called operations is made. There is a specific operation code to
identify each elementary operation in the RailTracker system.

Traffic operations are operations that change the physical position or traffic status of a vehicle.
When a vehicle is available for traffic, two statuses are possible:
- The vehicle can be attached, i.e. it becomes part of a train; or
- The vehicle is detached, i.e. it is not part of any train.
On a network, a fit vehicle is in one of the following locations:
- In the yard;
- In the customer siding; or
- On a foreign network.
When a vehicle is not available for traffic, it must be moved to the sickline. Siding operations
include placing on the siding (DS) or withdrawing from a siding (RS). The combination of
physical positions and traffic status imposes constraints on traffic operations, such that

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only certain traffic operations are allowed for each location.

Handling operations are operations that change the status or the position of a consignment
with regard to:
- A foreign network;
- A customer siding;
- A yard.
There are four possible consignment statuses:
- Taken in charge: goods are accepted by the railway for transport. This means that a
consignment note has been created and goods are under the railways responsibility;
- Unloaded: the consignment item is not yet in a wagon;
- Loaded: the consignment item is in a wagon and the number is known:
- Provided: the consignment item has been delivered to the customer.
Like traffic operations, the combination of physical positions and traffic status imposes
constraints on
handling operations, such that only certain handling operations are allowed for each location.

There are some special cases for the functions covered by the RailTracker system:
- Positioning: for one reason or another, the location of a vehicle or cargo as recorded in
the system might not reflect its physical location in the network. In such a situation, a
positioning is used so that the recorded position of a vehicle or cargo matches its actual
position;
- Milestone: a milestone is not a station or a siding, but any point on a railway main line.
Traffic operations and handling operations are authorized at milestones in the case of a
breakdown or an accident. For example, a train can be terminated at a milestone, and a
wagon can be offloaded or loaded.

Benefits of RailTracker

• There is no doubt that the major purpose of the RailTracker system is the generation of
advance customer information. Complemented by minor manual operations, the system
has achieved its objective within TRC. Once the Automatic Vehicle Identification System
and electronic data interchange (EDI) system have been introduced, further accuracy will
be achieved.
• Improvement in telecommunication facilities is also required in order to reduce reporting
delays and the costs of operating the system. Current performance supplies data that is
two hours behind real time. For TRC, however, it is a great improvement that has
provided significant benefits to TRC, both qualitative and qualitative.
• While it has provided customers with current information on the location of their
consignments, the system has been more beneficial to TRC management, providing them
with useful information that has enabled TRC to serve its customers better. Achievements
for both groups are explained below.

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TRC management benefits

• The successful installation and implementation of the RailTracker computer system has
had significant benefits for TRC at both strategic and tactical management levels.
• The Automatic reports have enabled senior and upper management to be well informed
of operations, with the aim of satisfying customers and improving performance.
• The major achievements of the information systems have been as follows:
(a) Reduction of:
(i) Wagon turnaround time from an average of 18 days at start in 1994 to 13 days;
(ii) Wagon detention at terminals from 8 days to an average of 4 days;
(iii) Average daily interchange balance from 203 to 108 wagons;
(iv) Average dwell time of foreign wagons from an average of 28 days to 12 days;
(v) Locomotive detention at terminal and in transit yards;
(vi) Transit times from 15 days to an average of 3 days.
(b) Increase in:
(i) Locomotive and wagon utilization from 280 kilometres per day in use to
380 kilometres for locomotives and from 73 to 120 kilometres per wagon day;

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(ii) Wagon productivity from an average of 20 loadings to 28 loadings per annum.
(c) The production of on-time performance statistics plays a greater role in the
development of strategies for improvement of the business and organization in general.
(d) Commercial benefits:
(i) In a bid to deliver services as agreed with some customers or as targeted by
TRC, monitoring of wagon movements after acceptance by TRC is done daily
to ensure that cargo is delivered on schedule;
(ii) One of major impacts of the system is the ability to inform customers of the
status and position of their cargo while it is on the TRC network;
(iii) The ability to trace and control wagons has also meant that wagons can be
supplied to customers more reliably;
(iv) It is possible to detect within a maximum of 12 hours any wagons not paid
for, in addition to knowing the revenue earned daily. The latter possibility enables
proper control of payments and credits;
(v) The availability of daily freight loading statistics serves as a good indication
regarding the achievement of weekly targets.

Future Developments
The flexibility of the RailTracker system has made it easier for the development of some of the
above-mentioned modules which were otherwise not available in the original system. Additional
functionality and modules have been requested, namely:
- Empty wagon distribution;
- Mechanical maintenance;
- Terminal operations;
- Wagon interchange;
- Demurrage charges;
- Automatic vehicle identification.
Some of these modules have been developed but need to be adapted to TRC system. Others still
need to be developed and will be developed as and when funds are available.
The empty wagon distribution, wagon interchange and demurrage charge modules need minor
modification to allow for automatic operations since most of the basic information is currently
available. Calculations and applications are done manually.

Conclusions

RailTracker has contributed to improving services for TRC customers and utilization of rolling
stock. It has lifted TRC from the days of “ask tomorrow” to nearly perfect information on the
location of cargo.

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References

1. http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/DEPTTS/Infrastructure/VISION
%202020_Eng_SUBMITTED%20TO%20PARLIAMENT.pdf
2. http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/brochures/indiarr/indiarr.pdf
3. www.unctad.org

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