Centre for Railway Information Systems

Center For Railway Information Systems
रेलवे सूचना प्रणाली केंद्र
Government
Industry IT services
IT consulting
Founded July 1986 (1986-07)
Founder Ministry of Railways
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Area served
 India
Key people
 Minister of Railways
Railway Board
Managing director
Services Information technology consulting services and solutions
Number of employees
 800 (2012)
Website www.cris.org.in

The Centre for Railway Information Systems {रेलवे सूचना प्रणाली केंद्र} (CRIS,[क्रिस]) designs, develops, implements and maintains most of the important information systems of Indian Railways. It is located in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. CRIS was established in 1986 by the Ministry of Railways of India.

History

In 1982, Indian Railways (IR) set up a central organisation (COFOIS) to computerise freight operations. In 1986 the Ministry of Railways saw the need for a dedicated, autonomous organisation and established CRIS, an umbrella organisation for all information technology-related activities on Indian Railways. It was entrusted with the task of designing, developing and implementing the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) and its communications infrastructure. CRIS began functioning in July 1986 as an autonomous organisation headed by an Executive Director (later redesignated Managing Director).

A unique feature of CRIS is collaboration by IT specialists and railway experts on deputation from the Indian Railways. Systems managed by CRIS have received international recognition from Computerworld.[1][2]

CRIS held a symposium, "IT Can Happen in Government", in New Delhi on 1 July 2010. The symposium explored the challenges faced by government agencies in meeting their IT needs and creating IT systems. In July 2014, a Seminar on Big Data was held, followed by a Symposium on Smart Cities in July 2015.

Work

CRIS designs, develops, implements and maintains information systems for Indian Railways. In addition, CRIS has developed, implemented and maintained IT systems for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (the A & N Ship Ticketing system). The number of projects handled by CRIS has increased from three in 2000 to more than 40 by 2016.

Major IR projects

  1. Computerisation of the Freight Operations Information System of Indian Railways: The FOIS enables management and control of freight movement, optimised asset utilisation and the generation of freight invoices. Many of IR's larger freight customers pay through an electronic payment gateway interfaced with the FOIS. About 72 percent of the railway's freight revenue is paid electronically.[3]
  2. Passenger Reservation System (PRS): A nationwide online passenger reservation and ticketing system, developed and maintained by CRIS, is developed in C and Fortran on a Digital OpenVMS operating system using RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as middleware. Also known as CONCERT (Country-wide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing), it interconnects the four regional computing systems (in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) into a national PRS grid. It allows a passenger anywhere to book train tickets from any station to any station. PRS handles reservations, changes, cancellations and refunds, reserving over 1.6 million seats and berths daily. Complex rules, validations and fare-computation techniques are interwoven in the application.[4]
  3. Next Generation eTicketing (NGeT): The Internet-based E-ticketing reservation system, developed for IRCTC, that connects at the back-end to PRS.[5]
  4. Computerisation of Indian Railways' Unreserved Ticketing System. Unreserved ticketing is a major component of IR’s ticket volume and an important source of revenue. UTS delivers fast unreserved ticketing from dedicated counters, replacing manual printed-card tickets, EFTs and BPTs with centralised online sales accounting. The architecture integrates with handheld terminals, smart cards and vending machines.
  5. [ National Train Enquiry System] for latest train running times and live train tracking.[6]
  6. [ Web-enabled claims: Web-based software enables the public to file and track claims online.[7]
  7. Rail Budget Compilation System (RBCS): Developed for budgetary input from Indian Railways zones and production units, RBCS facilitates data capture, database construction, demand analysis and estimate pruning for the railway budget.
  1. "Case Monitoring System" the Online Peoples' Representatives Demands Monitoring and Redressal System. Used in Parliament by MR Mukul Roy.
  2. "I-Pas" aids the personnel and finance departments. It consists of two modules: Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS).
  3. Workshop Information SystEm (WISE): A MIS project for railway workshops around the country. It is in operation in 14 workshops: Kharagpur, Jagadhri, Ajmer, Kota, Charbagh, Liluah, Kanchrapara, Matunga, Lower Parel, Parel, Bhusawal, Secunderabad, Lallaguda and Jamalpur. WISE provides report for workshop management using the ORACLE DBMS, and is being upgraded to an ERP-based system.
  4. Crew management: The Crew Management System (CMS) software provides real-time railway crew information. Information includes location, status and train assignments. It also maintains information on time off and continuing education. The software issues SMS alerts to management and supervisors if crew levels drop below a level likely to affect train operations. It can book crew for coach, shunting and freight service. The software supports the safety monitoring of the crew by inspectors, monitoring crew knowledge through a quiz administered through kiosks in crew lobbies, and provides up-to-date safety circulars.
  5. Control Office Application (COA): Enables rail-traffic controllers to manage the trains running in their section, and is operational in all division control offices. The COA interfaces with other applications (such as NTES) to provide train information to passengers and managers.
  6. E-Procurement System: Provides a secure, fair and transparent method of materials procurement through a web-based interface. It enables suppliers to securely upload their tenders to a central server in encrypted form, which can be decrypted only by authorised railway officials after the tender opening. All timestamps are authenticated by the National Physical Laboratory. The system is operational on all zonal railways and units, and has been extended to CORE, RDSO, RailTel and the Kolkata Metro. E-Auction was launched in March 2012, and has been adopted by All zonal railways and Production Units. A payment gateway was implemented in January 2012 and approx 280 Crore online funds transferred till Feb 2014 .[8]
  7. Software for Locomotive Asset Management (SLAM): Under development, this system will track and allocate electric locomotives.
  8. Additional asset-management systems, such as for Diesel locomotives, freight cars, coaches and track, are under development. An ERP-based system was implemented at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, in January 2012.
  9. Automatic fare-collection and passenger-control systems for Metro Railway in Kolkata using RFID technology.
  10. Freight Maintenance Management(FMM): An ERP and Java based system, developed to cover Maintenance of Freight Rolling Stock. ERP part is used for purely maintenance jobs in depots, whereas Java part(known as Central Application) is used for reporting purpose and other mechanical(only freight) department related business processes by Divisional and Zonal HQs and RB. Currently in pilot phase, successfully implemented in Dadri Wagon Depot (NCR), Tuglakabad Wagon depot (NR) & Dhandarikalan Wagon Depot (NR). The BPC(Brake Power Certificate) of freight trains in yards under these depots, are issued through FMM.
  11. Locoshed Maintenance Management(LMS): A Maintenance Management System for Diesel Locos.

Application integration

Independently running applications interchange data amongst themselves. COA (Control Office Application), which assists train controllers (despatchers) in planning and tracking the movement of trains across the network, shares its data with applications such as NTES (by which passengers can obtain a train's location and forecast movement). Train punctuality reports are generated through ICMS (Integrated Coaching Management System), which also receives data from COA.

Timeline


References

  1. ↑ 2005 Computerworld Honors Case Study, accessed 8 January 2007
  2. ↑ PCQUEST (India) Best IT Implementation of the Year 2006, accessed 8 January 2007
  3. ↑ "Freight Operations Information System". Indian Railways. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  4. ↑ "Indian Railways Passenger Reservation Enquiry". Indian Railways. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  5. ↑ "IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System". Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  6. ↑ "National Train Enquiry Sustem". Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  7. ↑ "Railway Claims and Refunds". Indian Railways. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  8. ↑ "Indian Railways E-Procurement System". Indian Railways. Retrieved 24 November 2013.

External links

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