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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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3. Message should be send to all existing user by irctc, for awareness
of new rules.
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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.