Railway Budget 2015 boosts IT and telecoms biz

Railway Budget 2015 – announced by Railway minister Suresh Prabhu — offers more hopes to Indian IT and telecom industry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that Rail Budget 2015 has a clear vision for the time because its technology upgrade will rely on investment in IT and telecom.

The following areas will boost Indian IT and telecom sectors:

Indian Railway is planning to expand rail capacity substantially and modernize its infrastructure. It plans to increase daily passenger carrying capacity from 21 million to 30 million, enhance track length by 20 percent from 1,14,000 km to 1,38,000 km and grow annual freight carrying capacity from 1 billion to 1.5 billion tons.

Indian Railway will introduce online booking of disposable bed rolls.

There will be 24X7 helpline number 138 and toll-free number 182 for security related complaints.

There will be hot buttons, coin vending machines, single destination teller, multi-lingual e-portal, crediting of refunds through banks, unreserved tickets on smartphones, automatic ticket vending machines with smart cards and currency options, etc.

Indian Railway will add e-catering to select meals from an array of choices. Travelers can order food through IRCTC website at the time of booking of tickets.

There will be hand-held terminals to Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) for verification of passengers and downloading charts.

Railway Budget boost for IT and telecom

Indian Railway will explore the possibility of extending facility of SMS on mobiles as a valid proof of travel for PRS tickets.

There will be an integrated customer portal as a single interface to access different services.

Indian Railway is also planning to introduce a centrally managed Railway Display Network in over 2,000 stations in next two years.

There will be SMS Alert service to inform passengers in advance of the updated arrival/departure time of trains at starting or destination stations.

Indian Railway will add surveillance cameras on a pilot basis in selected mainline coaches and ladies’ compartments of suburban coaches without intruding into privacy.

Project for introducing on-board entertainment on select Shatabdi trains on license fee basis is in the pipeline.

Mobile phone charging facilities will be provided in general class coaches and increased in sleeper class coaches.

Wi-Fi will be provided at B category stations.

There will be online booking of wheel chair on payment basis for senior citizens, patients and the differently-abled passengers through IRCTC on select stations.

Train Protection Warning System and Train Collision Avoidance System will be installed on select routes at the earliest.

Indian Railway will unveil its IT vision.

Some of the focus areas of Indian Railway will be station navigation system, bar coded / RFID tracking of parcels and freight wagons, automated parcel warehouses, integration of train control and asset management applications and digitized mapping of land records.

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