Rail Budget : On Track with IT

For Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Indian Railway Minister, who does not forget to
mention how he crowds at having impressed the Harvard and IIMA by his
turnaround story, the latest Railway Budget is in line with, and the
reflection of, the new thinking in the Ministry of Railways. This is probably
the first time a Railway minister has devoted so many words and pages leveraging
IT for betterment of the railways infrastructure. Whenever we talk of Indian
railways, the use of IT stops at the most important two recognized innovations
that the railways have yet undertakenthe computerized reservation system, and
the online reservation system through
www.irctc.co.in.

The announcements in the budget, hinting at large-scale usage of IT
technologies, have come as enchanting music to the IT companies, particularly
the Indian players. Some of the companies like Infosys, which have had less
focus on the domestic market (it created India Business Unit sometime back)
uptill now, are seeing this as a good opportunity and are raring to be part of
the initiatives. According to Balakrishnan V, CFO, Infosys Technologies, The
railway budget points to a large-scale modernization of the railways
architecture of which an integral component is IT. The gamut of opportunities
within IT could cover digitization, freight management, ticket processing over
the mobile, alternative delivery systems, and optimizing and upgrading
IT-infrastructure. This is a great opportunity for Indian IT players, like
Infosys. We have a dedicated integrated business unit which is focused on Indian
markets and we will be actively participating in some of these opportunities.

Echoing similar sentiments, Ranjan Tayal, India Head, Satyam says,The
increased focus on leveraging the benefits of IT is heartening. In fact, the
Railway Ministry is looking at IT as a strategic tool. IT partners need to
engage not just at a service but at a solutions level as well. The scope of work
now goes beyond just implementing IT frameworks to post-deployment services like
enterprise-wide roll-out and maintenance.

According to reports, Satyam is in talks with the Indian Railways for three
to four information technology outsourcing deals worth Rs 10 to 20 bn. The deals
include those for asset management services, ERP, RFID, Commercial portals, etc.

Not only IT companies, even telecom services providers and equipment vendors
are eying a slice of the pie considering some of the initiatives like ticket
booking through mobile, providing internet connectivity on the trains, and
improvement in the communications infrastructure.

In fact, things have already started working at the ground level. It is no
surprise that issue of tender for development, implementation and commissioning
of the commercial Web portal of Indian Railway, has already taken place (it is
available on the newly designed www.indianrail.gov.in website) and the
government has been requested to include development, implementation and
commissioning of the IR commercial Web portals as well. It is suggested that
this will give consolidation to the Indian Zonal Railway and related web sites,
with search and remote content management facilities and developed journey
planning, e-ticketing, frequent travelers and e-auctioning of passenger
reservation tickets, e-auction of empty rakes in reverse routes, retiring and
cloak room booking, and above all addressing passenger complaints.

While online ticketing and computerized reservations have been a tremendous
success, what passengers now expect, apart from other things, is real time
information dissemination on the railway station, the train, and punctuality.
And while the Railways is still finding it relatively tough to compete with the
low cost carriers, it has yet to learn how to keep the passengers well informed
before and during the period of travel. It seems a most sensible decision that
such issues be left to the expertise of the IT companies which can deal in such
matters with much more precision and ease. These changes, as prescribed by the
Railway Minister himself, seem to be bringing in a new and thoroughly reformed
Railways for the public. One can also dare to comment that the Railway Minister
who oft-repeated his comment, IT YT Kya Hai, now looks like a transformed man.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in