Centre for Railway Information Systems

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Centre for Railway Information Systems
Center For Railway Information Systems
Type Government
Industry IT services
IT consulting
Founded July1986
Founder(s) 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
Employees 800 (2012)
Website
www.cris.org.in
[1]
The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) designs, develops, implements and maintains most 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 organization (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 COFOIS and its communications infrastructure. CRIS began functioning in
July 1987 as an autonomous organisation headed by a managing director.
A unique feature of CRIS is collaboration by IT specialists and railway experts on assignment from Indian Railways.
Systems managed by CRIS have received international recognition from Computerworld.
[2][3]
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.
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 to 25.
Major IR projects
1. 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.
Centre for Railway Information Systems
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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 1.6million seats and berths daily. Complex rules, validations and fare-computation techniques are
interwoven in the application.
3. 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 IRs 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] and RailRadar 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.
8. 8. Vigilance Software System (VSS): Designed specially for the vigilance requirements of Indian Railways, and
implemented in all the zone headquarters. VSS maintains information on vigilance cases and complaints,
including reports and correspondence.
9. 9. "Case Monitoring System" the Online Peoples' Representatives Demands Monitoring and Redressal System.
Used in Parliament by MR Mukul Roy.
10. 10. "I-Pass" aids the personnel and finance departments. It consists of two modules: Financial Accounting System
(FAS) and Payroll System (PS).
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 13. 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.
14. 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 .
15. 15. Software for Locomotive Asset Management (SLAM): Under development, this system will track and allocate
electric locomotives.
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16. 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.
17. 17. Automatic fare-collection and passenger-control systems for Metro Railway in Kolkata using RFID technology.
18. 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.
19. 19. Locoshed Maintenance Management(LMS): This is counterpart of FMM 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
Jan 2014: E-Governance Award for Business Process Re-engineering to COA/CRIS
21 April 2008: Prime Minister Award for Excellence in Public Administration to CRIS
1 May 2008: IBM Beacon and Top Star Awards to CRIS for E-Working
2 June 2008: Case study "E Working: A less-paper initiative in the category 'Non Profit Organizations'"
19 June 2008: Deployment of CMS in Indian Railways
26 September 2008: CIO 100 Bold award to CMS
6 July 2009: CRIS Symposium
4 September 2009: CIO Green Edge Award
14, 21 September 2009: Documentary on UTS and UTN on DD National Delhi Channel
20 April 2010: PRS get Web Ratna 2009 in Citizen-centric category
1 July 2010: CRIS symposium
References
[1] http:/ / www. cris. org.in
[2] 2005 Computerworld Honors Case Study (http:/ / www. cwhonors. org/ laureates/ transportation/ 20055380. pdf), accessed 8 January 2007
[3] PCQUEST (India) Best IT Implementation of the Year 2006 (http:/ / www. pcquest. com/ content/ implementation2006/ 2006/ 106060816.
asp), accessed 8 January 2007
External links
Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) website (http:/ / www. cris. org. in)
"Giving an IT boost to Indian Railways" (http:/ / www. expresscomputeronline. com/ 20060403/ market06.
shtml), Express Computer, 3 April 2006
Priyanka Sharma (8 July 2005). "Rlys to use radio frequency identification to track wagons" (http:/ / www.
thehindubusinessline. com/ 2005/ 07/ 08/ stories/ 2005070802970700. htm). Business Line (The Hindu).
Details of the July 1, 2010, symposium (http:/ / www. 24framesdigital. com/ cris/ webcast/ 010710/ )
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
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