Indian railway reservation problems rsdo report file
- 1. 1 ACKNOWLEGEMENT First of all we are thankful to directorate officers for showing their deepest support and confidence in us. They have guide us like a teacher and as a friend for this training period and given us all the guidance necessary for a trainee. Then we would like to thank all the training teachers for support and for helping us to understand the different topics and technologies used by RDSO to improve and make Indian railways functional.
- 2. 2 OBJECTIVE The main objective of this report file is to pin out major problems of Indian railways reservation system and suggesting some proper solution that can be implemented in the current system to improve the passenger reservation system. Like now days as in vacation season the load on reservation system is very high due to which many online ticket transaction are facing failures problems causing the passenger many problems. So installation of more servers to handle multiple user at same can reduce these failures. Indian railway reservation problems ONLINE RESERVATION IRCTC 1. Session time out due to enquiry limit. 2. Limited server cause slow speed. 3. Multiple failures during form filling, saving of form should be dynamic. 4. Cancelled transaction problem during tatkal hours, Many times during tatkal hours ticket is not booked even after payment due to slow speed of irctc or due to limited server. 5. Limit of ip (internet protocol) address of particular computer for only two ticket for whole time during tatkal hours. 6. Slow processing speed during tatkal hours. (Due to heavy traffic)
- 3. 3 7. Long refund period of money for cancelled tickets and failed transaction. 8. International debit and credit card is not accepted, only few are accepted like am-exp(American express). Counter ticket booking. 1. Rush during tatkal hours and in vocational season, as many people and agents prebook the tickets in advance due which heavy rush is generated, as there are only few seats available in tatkal. 2. Limitation in no. of reservation counter, due which there is heavy rush on reservation counter in vocational and festival session. 3. Lack in management on small station like opening timing for reservation of ticket, as the administration of such station is not so good on such station. 5. Improper use of reserved quota seats, there should be proper management of reserved quota seats. 6. Proper distribution of vacant seats, in many cases travelling ticket examiner demands extra money from passengers for allocation of vacant seats. 7. Proper management during peak season of trains, delays of trains during winter and in many cases these delays cause cancellation of trains. 8. Proper management of special trains is also important, normally cancellation of special trains are very common or delays of special trains.
- 4. 4 CURRENT STATUS AND SYSTEM USED BY INDIAN RAILWAYS 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. 2. Passenger Reservation System (PRS): A nationwide online passenger reservation and ticketing system, developed and maintained by CRIS, is a client-server application developed in C and FORTRAN on a Digital OpenVMS operating system using RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as middleware. CONCERT (Country-wide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing) 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. 3. The Internet-based E-ticketing reservation system, whose front end has been developed by CRIS. 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. 5 5. National Train Enquiry System for latest train running times and live train tracking. 6. Web-enabled claims: Web-based software enables the public to file and track claims online. 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. 8. "Case Monitoring System" the Online Peoples' Representatives Demands Monitoring and Redressal System. 9. "I-Pas" aids the personnel and finance departments. It consists of two modules: Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS). 10. 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. 11. 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.
- 6. 6 12. 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. 13. 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 KolkataMetro. 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. 14. Software for Locomotive Asset Management (SLAM): Under development, this system will track and allocate electric locomotives. 15. 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. 16. Automatic fare-collection and passenger-control systems for Metro Railway in Kolkata using RFID technology. 17. 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
- 7. 7 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. 18. Locoshed Maintenance Management (LMS): This is counterpart of FMM for Diesel Locos.
- 8. 8 IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED IN INDIAN RAILWAYS 1. Irctc Should introduce wallet scheme so that transaction become easy or time consumption of redirecting to merchant sites will be saved. 2. There should be increment in tatkal quota seats, as now days the rush for tatkal tickets is very huge but due to limited tatkal tickets only few peopleget tatkal ticket,increment in tatkal quota seats can reduce these rush and also as many people need to travel in emergency for their work but as almost all seats are prebooked in advance period, they have to try in tatkal but there also they faces huge rush during vocational season or during festival season due to which they faces many problems, to reduce such problems tatkal quota seats should be increased . 3. Irctc Installation of more servers for good speed even during heavy rush time. 4. Change in tatkal timing timing, like for trains after 12 noon open tatkal two day before and for trains before 12 noon open tatkal one day before the starting of trains, this may help the people for booking tatkal tickets and also help Indian railways administration to handle huge rush during vocational and holiday seasons. 6. Irctc should accept of international debit and credit card. 7. Proper inspection of ticket and i.d of passengers so that improper booking that is being done by agents on anonymous identity can be reduced. 8. As In irctc there is enquiry limit which leads to session time out in case multiple time out, such reason for session time out should be removed.
- 9. 9 9. Improvement in like saving of filled form dynamically so that in case of disconnection of internet user didn’t need to refill the form again from start, it should start form where it was left, it will be saved in cache memory of web browser which can be used further. 10. Limit should be for per day not for whole lifetime so that it should not limit the user to book tatkal tickets during tatkal hours as in most cases all tatkal reserved seats are booked during tatkal hours due to which user are not able to book tatkal tickets. 11. Refund process should be fast like irctc refund money for cancelled tickets or failed transaction in period of 7 days which is very long period as in many cases if user need the money they cannot use it due long refund process, it should be within 1-2 days of cancelled tickets or failed transaction. 12. International debit and credit card should be accepted by irctc. 13. there should be two advance period for particular trains so that passenger not having very advance plans can book tickets also like now days advance booking period is 120 days so reservation for only half of total seats is open for advance booking before 120 days and other half should be after 60 days so that there is decrease in rush. 14. Increase in tatklal quota seats. 15.as increase in demands there should more counter opened during tatkal hours only for tatkal ticket and other for normal ticket booking means there should different counter for 10 a.m. to 12 noon for tatkal booking. 16. Small station should also be properly managed like in many rural areas people are not able to book tickets during tatkal hours due slow connection or server down problem.
- 10. 10 SOLUTION SUGGESTED FOR PROBLEMS 1. ENGINEERING /TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION 1. Installation of more server. 2. Dynamic filling of reservation forms. 3. Easy interface and captcha so that login failures reduce. 4. Removal of adds on sites of irctc of different product as these may leads to failures of ticket if but chance user clicks on add. 2. ENFORCEMENT /IMPLEMENTATION 1. Many changes can happen in few days but other can take more time. 2. Like installation of new server for irctc, change in payment method, introduction of wallet system , introduction of international debit and credit card for transaction. 3. Some other may take long time like introduction of more reservation counter on station. 3. EDUCATION AMONG MASES 1. News of changes in reservation system should be published in all newspaper and among social media also so that every possible people should know about the change. 2. The new rules should be listed among all railway station so that many people should know about the change.
- 11. 11 3. Message should be send to all existing user by irctc, for awareness of new rules.
- 12. 12 RECOMMEDATION 1.Paper should be saved by sending message of details of ticket and also link for printing the ticket if passenger wanted and also an option on reservation form that the passenger wanted a printed ticket or not, even in case of counter tickets. 2. When trains are cancelled the passengers of that train suffer from may problems as many of them may have some kind of emergency, so Indian railway should manage the passengers in other trains by adding extra coaches or adjusting the passengers in other trains who wanted to travel on same day due to any kind of emergency. 3. There should be open centre by irctc in all cities so that people can also go there for reservation due to which rush of railway station can be reduced.