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IR commences monitoring progress of Rail projects using Drones

15 Sep, 2016  in Indian Railways / Information Technology, Communication Systems, Digital Rail, Social Media, Mobility in Railway Industry by rail

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New Delhi: Stepping up the monitoring mechanism, railways has opted for the state of the art surveillance devices such as drone and geo-based spatial based satellite technology to monitor the crucial projects without visiting the site.

Monitoring the projects and implementing on time is of utmost importance for railways, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Besides monitoring through drones, the official said Internet protocol based cameras are also being used to have an effective and constant monitoring for speeding up the project execution.

Currently six major rail projects are being monitored through the latest equipment like drones.

Progress in Bilaspur-Seawood-Uran Brihan Mumbai rail link project in Maharashtra, Sultanpur-Lambhua line project in Uttar Pradesh, Mortald – Nizamabad line in Telangana and Mudkhed – Porbhani line in Maharashtra are being monitored through the use of drone technology.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation has also pressed two drones to monitor projects. Durgawati – Sasaram line of Eastern DFC in Bihar and Neem ka Thana – Srimadhopur line in Western DFC in Rajasthan are being monitored by drone service.

The IP based cameras are being used to monitor Kashmir rail link projects.

CHINA SKY TRAIN

Need to think 10 years ahead to achieve transformational change: Suresh Prabhu

7 Sep, 2016  in Rail Interviews / Union Minister of Railways by rail

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My idea is that from anywhere to anywhere in the country, one should be able to reach within 12 hours; tells Suresh Prabhu in an Interview. Minister opines that while Indian Railways is eyeing new sources of revenue and looking to focus on transformational change instead of incremental improvements, we have to think 10 years ahead for achieving it. Edited excerpts:

Q: Why are you working towards merging the rail budget with the Union budget?

A: You need to understand that I have huge social obligation in the form of subsidies (at least Rs 30,000 crore).

I have proposed that subsidies for categories such as defence, senior citizens, students and others should be borne by their respective ministries. That is the most logical way of doing it. We should have a unified approach towards national priorities. Railways shouldn’t work in isolation.

Nowhere in the world does the railway have a separate budget. I had written to the finance minister to merge the budget. We are both on the same page now. We have already formed a committee that is looking into the modalities.

The committee will give its report soon which would then be implemented.

Q: What will be the impact of Seventh Pay Commission award on the already stressed railway finances?

A: The impact is unprecedented. The impact of the fifth and sixth pay commissions was not even half as that of the seventh one.

In one go, my wage bill will go up by at least Rs 35,000 crore. We had taken it into account during the presentation of the budget.

I think it will be uncomfortable for us but we’ll manage since I’m targeting non-fare revenue. We are also in talks with the finmin. Then we would save some money on energy and fuel bill.

I have also requested the finance ministry to waive the dividend we pay. Have you ever heard that a financially overburdened organisation such as railways is paying dividend to the government?

Q: Freight growth hasn’t been as expected & passenger traffic is slowing. How grim is the picture?

A: The challenge today is to convert vicious circle into virtuous circle.

Today, my freight revenue has come down because of slow growth globally. Indian Railways does not work in silo. Freight has shrunk across the world. If you see China, last year their freight loading fell 13 per cent.

This year they are happy because it is just down 7 per cent. The world over freight has been falling. In India, freight hasn’t grown as we expected, but at least it hasn’t shrunk. My idea is not to make money through freight or passenger as it’s already stagnated.

The idea is to make money through railway stations. The commercial exploitation of stations has long been talked about.Nothing has happened on that front. Stations and trains are the prime real estate.

I have set up a dedicated cell to rake in non-fare revenue. It’s taking station by station and train by train approach for commercial exploitation. These trains and stations could be our mass media products.

We need to sell them to advertisers. You would see the difference in coming years. Nowhere in the world is the fare model successful and no railway relies just on passenger and freight earnings for growth.

If we have to move towards having a railway system like the ones in developed world, we must take transformational steps now. There’s an urgent need to junk incremental thinking. We have to think ten years ahead.

Q: What are the models you are looking at for redevelopment of railway stations?

A: For station redevelopment, I have come up with five different models. I have hired BCG (Boston Consulting Group) as a consultant.

The first model is to get into partnership with states. Both state and railways join hands in redevelopment of stations and get our investment back through commercial exploitation.

Maharashtra has already proposed to redevelop 36 stations. So, this model looks feasible. The second mode is to get government to government funding. There have been talks with China, Japan and some other countries.

The third is to get cash-rich PSUs on board. If they have money they should invest it and get some return as well. Some investors are also coming forward for the complete PPP (public-private partnership) model. And we are also in talks with the World Bank to develop around 10 stations.

In sometime all of it will go to implementation stage from drawing board. I’ll redevelop around 100 stations.

Q: The operating ratio is very high. How do you spend on capacity expansion when your traffic isn’t growing as expected?

A: People ask me that when do we get to see the difference. Railways for the longest time has had legacy issues.

We are sorting them out one by one. There can be no overnight transformation. It would take some time to get results. I would say three-four years at least.

Media always focuses on short-term results but in a mammoth organisation like ours, deliverables would take some time but then what you’ll get will be world-class. I have already restructured the rail board.

You say that the railways was growing during Laluji’s time. People forget that economic growth across world at that time was really good. To get things on track I’m already in final stages of setting up an independent authority that will take financially prudent decisions.

There’s a holding company for all our PSUs that’s in the works. A draft cabinet note has already been circulated for comments and we are waiting for comments from the finance ministry and Niti Aayog. I have already doubled my capex in two years from Rs 58,000 crore to Rs 1, 21,000 crore.

It clearly indicates that we are spending money on constructing new lines. For the next five years, I have a capex plan of Rs 8 lakh crore. We are setting up a Rail India Development Fund with World Bank’s assistance.

We’ll be tapping low-cost long-term pension funds. In layman’s terms, my target is to construct 6-7 km of new rail lines every day.

Q: You’ve been talking about setting infrastructure for high-speed railways in India. What’s the progress?

A: We have always got technology from other countries. India has never been able to have a technology of its own.

Today, I have thought of developing technology along with global railway companies.

I’m not thinking about increasing the speed by 10-15 km. My idea is that from anywhere to anywhere in the country, one should be able to reach within 12 hours.

Why do we have 36-hour-long journeys? I’m putting in place Mission 350 plus so that we could get ultra-high speed technology to India. We have already floated tenders for maglev technology. Four-five global rail companies have already approached me.

I’m working out the financial structures for such projects. Investors are showing interest. Railways has been able to attract interest from global investors. This is no less achievement.

Q: What steps are you are taking to ensure that your revenue doesn’t fall since the loading of coal and other core commodities has been low?

A: Railways has never been market focused and reliance on freight has been limited to coal and a few other commodities. Now, I have asked my officials to be market focused and expand the freight basket.

There’s a need for segmentation of freight traffic. For example, Maruti Suzuki chairman was here for a meeting a few days ago. He told me he wants to use the railways for transportation of his cars across the country.

We are working on a special auto freight scheme. I am not competing with roads but complementing it.There’s a synergy that I am trying to develop among all forms of transportation since none of it could work in silos.

We have people who want to invest in private freight sidings here. They are investing in the infrastructure. Though the money is not coming to us, our infrastructure is expanding. Earlier, coal and fertiliser ministry would blame me for shortage of wagons.

Today, I have the capacity to load 1,200 mt.

‘Medha’ Train to be launched after monsoon

7 Sep, 2016  in M/s Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd / Rail Enterprise, Industry and OEMs by rail

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The ‘Medha’ train, manufactured under the Prime Minister’s Make in India programme, were to be run on Western Railway (WR) tracks in February this year, thus saving 30 per cent in maintenance costs. But the launch of the train has been postponed to after the monsoon ends, since tests are still being run on the rake.

The train had arrived in the city last October. It was to be pressed into service in February this year. But officials have said that the final test with the commissioner of railway safety (CRS), western circle, is yet to be completed. “Electrical components of the train need to be tested during the monsoon. It is a first of its kind. So the authorities want to make sure that all the worst-case-scenarios are tested for before the train is launched,” said an official.

A unique feature of the Medha train is a certain piece of electrical equipment that will send out an alert to the control room whenever any part of the locomotive’s system fails. This would help get the train back into service earlier and thereby reduce the delays usually seen after such failures.

IT enabled Parcel System and Reservation on Demand by 2020 in Railways

8 Sep, 2016  in Indian Railways / Information Technology, Communication Systems, Digital Rail, Social Media, Mobility in Railway Industry / Traffic Commercial by rail

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New Delhi: With Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is on the advanced stage of testing, Indian Railways are mulling for computerised parcel system and reservation on demand by 2020 in the country.

These announcements were made by the Railway Board chairman A K Mittal during his visit to Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) here yesterday.

“At present the details of all the parcels sent through Railways was being done manually and due to this many a time the parcels get lost midway or reach somewhere else than their real destinations. We are trying to aggregate the bulk and retail parcels sent through Railways. The new system will have a tracking system too so that one can know where the parcel has reached,” the chairman told reporters here after attending the Annual Governing Council Meeting of the RDSO.

RAIL FANS

498 km long Bilaspur-Manali-Leh Rail link put on fast track

6 Sep, 2016  in Indian Railways / Northern Railway / Northern Railway, Firozpur Division by rail

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Apart from being of strategic importance, the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh railway line, is also expected to boost tourism potential of the area, right from Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh.

New Delhi: To expedite the survey work of the 498 km long Bilaspur-Manali-Leh newrailway line, railways has sought land from Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) to set up camp office at Leh.

Government wants to strengthen the rail network in areas located close to Tibet.

We have requested the LAHDC Chairman to allot land for setting up camp office at Leh to speed up the survey work of the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh rail line, said a senior Northern Railway official.

Apart from being of strategic importance, the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh railway line, is also expected to boost tourism potential of the area, right from Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh.

The cost of construction of the 498-km railway line has been estimated at Rs 22,831 crore.

Northern Railway General Manager AK Puthia has visited Leh along with team of senior officers and discussed the issue of railway connectivity to Ladakh region with the local elected representatives and district administration recently.

According to the official, the Chairman LAHDC has advised to submit a formal application in this regard and further assured that the same would be allotted at top priority and hence land will not be a problem.

Bilaspur-Manali-Leh rail line would pass through Bilaspur, Mandi, Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh to reach Leh.

IR to revamp Retiring Room Complexes at 600 Stations across country

5 Sep, 2016  in Indian Railways / Investments, PPP, FDI, SPVs in Rail Industry / IRCTC / Traffic Commercial by rail

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Railway Retiring Rooms at 600 Stations across the country will undergo a major revamp as IRCTC plans to equip them with WiFi, Air-conditioners, Lockers, ergonomically designed furniture and aesthetically-designed washrooms, among various other facilities!

New Delhi: Retiring rooms at 600 stations across the country will undergo a major revamp as IRCTC plans to equip them with air-conditioners, wifi connectivity and aesthetically-designed washrooms, among other facilities.

Railways currently manages around 2,000 retiring rooms or dormitories at more than 600 stations. The facility is meant to provide reasonable safe transit accommodation to bonafide passengers, who can book a retiring room for a maximum of 72 hours.

“We are in the process of floating tenders to engage reputed service providers for the maintenance, expansion and introduction of new facilities in retiring rooms on the PPP and renovate-operate-transfer (ROT) model,” IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director A K Monocha said .

“Renovation work will be carried out in a phased manner. To begin with, retiring rooms/dormitories at around 400 major stations will be taken up to provide upgraded services to rail passengers,” he added.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had in his 2016-17 budget speech announced that “retiring rooms will be handed over to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to ensure that these can be managed in a professional manner.”

The revamped retiring rooms will have facilities like quality mattresses and linen, almirah/locker for luggage, LED TV, telephone and intercom, firefighting equipment, potable water and room heaters. They will be well furnished and properly lit.

Washrooms are to be aesthetically designed with modern facilities. There will also be wheel chairs for senior citizens and disabled persons.

IRCTC is also planning to provide some value-added services on payment basis, such as food and beverage in rooms, tour and travel services with local sightseeing, magazines and books, laundry facility, Internet, STD/ISD and Wi-Fi connectivity in the premises.

It will also ensure retailing of journey conveniences and travel requirements like gifts and toys. To top it all, there will be bell boy/porter service for luggage handling.

“IRCTC intends to provide an upgraded retiring room complex on lines of guesthouses with more personalised services and expanded food and beverage services,” he said, adding, “We will bring industry expertise to undertake the refurbishing work of the retiring room complexes.”

Currently, the facilities in retiring rooms include AC and non-AC rooms with attached/common bathrooms, AC and non-AC dormitories with common bathrooms, limited food and beverages services, and lockers.

Personal insurance of Rs.10 Lakh @ Rs.0.92/Rail ticket: IRCTC

6 Sep, 2016  in Investments, PPP, FDI, SPVs in Rail Industry / IRCTC / Rail Interviews by rail

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Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) made it to the much famed Fortune India Next 500 list of companies for the second consecutive year.

In an interview, A.K. Manocha, CMD/IRCTC said that the company’s plan to construct business lounges, like airports was earlier stalled but after repeatedly requesting the ministry and policy is now changed and IRCTC has successfully commissioned three of them.

He said that one is at Delhi which will be re-commissioned and given to a private sector operator on private-public partnership (PPP) mode to run and operate.

The other two are in Agra and Jaipur, he added.

On the upcoming personal insurance service, Manocha said that the price will start at Rs 0.92 per ticket and will provide an insurance for Rs 10 lakh.

It is expected to be launched in the next 10-15 days by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he further said.

Below is the transcript of AK Manocha’s interview:

Q: You have made it to the list of Fortune-500 companies for the second year in a row. What is so unique about IRCTC?

A: IRCTC has been in the business of catering and tourism for the last 12 years. And we have been making a fortune every year. We are paying dividend to the government, we are making profits and even to the extent, when catering was taken away from IRCTC and turnover went down to Rs 500 crore, this year we grew to Rs 1,500 crore which is a threefold jump in about last six years.

And I would put it that last year we had a tough challenge also because catering was taken away.

Two years back of course, people were very depressed when catering was taken away. But then gradually our system recovered and our turnover came to somewhere around Rs 650-700 crore. But last year we touched Rs 1,100 crore, this year, 2015-2016 we touched Rs 1,500 crore and we hope that we will be able to beat it and go into Fortune-500.

We have jumped about 250-300 ranks for three years consecutively. And this year ranking will be coming sometime in January.

So, Rs 1,500 crore where we have jumped about 38 percent, we should be in the top-10 or top-15 of the Fortune-500, especially the vision of our Honourable Prime Minister and our Honourable Minister, who are continuously and very user friendly, we get a lot of prodding from the ministry to deliver quickly.

And of course, we want for certain broad guidelines. Sometimes, they take a lot of time, but still, whatever be the constraints of those issues, we have been able to improve the general style of the country and the railway men.

Q: I also want to talk about the passenger amenities because that is something IRCTC is continuously improving, be it water vending machines, be it bed rolls for non-ac passengers. What is the vision as far as passenger amenities are concerned?

A: Let us take it one by one. We have had mandated to construct executive lounges at the station which are business lounges, like airports. So, a few were built a few years back and then, the person who made it just left it because of the usual procedure where rent was increased several fold and land prices also circulate, also went up.

So, the rent became prohibitively expensive. So, after repeatedly requesting the ministry, we were successful in getting the policy changed. We have successfully commissioned three of them. One at New Delhi.

That will be re-commissioned, given to a private sector person on private-public partnership (PPP) mode to run and operate, one at Agra and another at Jaipur.

I am very sure another 45 will be coming not later than next June. And they can be as cheap as, say in Konkan Railway, they are running for Rs 25 per passenger for two hours and where you have WiFi facility and just AC, good comfort, privacy and all those facilities. We give of course, takeaway counter also. So, this is one issue.

Then we have been advised, after a lot of repeated chasing, ministry has agreed and Honourable Minister has already announced in the budget to go for upgradation of retiree rooms which are for people to stay. We are waiting for the policy guidelines. We have already done a pilot project in Katra station.

Q: I am glad you talked about services because we have heard that Railways is planning to come up with a lot of services and there are services such as WiFi or canteens, but it is the maintenance that is an issue. In our own ground reports, we found that maintenance is still one of the major problems of railways. How is IRCTC planning to work around that?

A: Most of the projects, I would say, I personally feel are one of the best models we could think of. They are on PPP mode. Let us take water vending machine which we have mentioned. We already tendered for 2,000 machines, awarded them and more than 500 machines have been installed in a large part of the country.

Another 1,500 are due for installation in about next one year’s time. We have tendered for another 1,000 and that response has been not so warm this time, I must admit. But 45-50 percent will still be finalised.

Q: You mentioned the response was not warm. Why was that?

A: The prime locations have gone, that is number one, because 2,000 is a big number. These were at 700 main stations. Then, the issue remains, some local issues like people must have found some difficulties in bureaucratic rigmarole, that is getting water, electricity connection and handling the local people or local population. But still, we are very sure that we will be able to install more than 5,000 machines in the next one and a half year.

In fact my ambition was to go many fold of this because this is so cheap. You get Rs 1 World Health Organisation (WHO) standard water, chilled water, refill and it gives employment.

So, you can imagine a Rs 5 lakh machine yielding about Rs 10-15 lakh a year. So, it is a lucrative business for most of the people. So, everywhere what we get is a licence piece which is quite good for us, I must admit.

Q: Taking further from water to toilets, you talked about namma toilets that you have installed in certain parts of the country. What is the plan from here on? How many stations are we going to see you covering in the future?

A: We have almost finalised tender for 29 locations. These are part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and each namma toilet is not a cheap thing. It costs over Rs 17 lakhs. It is a pre-fabricated composite material toilet, consists of eight units, two male, one female, one divyang and four urinals. And biodigester can also be fitted on this. It is approve by Prime Minister’s Office.

The first one was launched by Honourable Cabinet Secretary and it is hugely popular also. The first one was installed by NBCC opposite Hyatt Hotel. So, now recently, one namma toilet was innovated by Honourable Railway Minister about three days back at Khar Road station, local station in Mumbai. Two more are getting installed in Mumbai area within the next 15 days, one at Andheri and another at Bandra.

Q: So you are planning to go pan-India with namma toilets?

A: Yes, and ‘namma’ means ‘us’ or ‘our in Kannada. So, just yesterday I have approved some 6 toilets to be placed on CSR along with water vending machines. So, we are expecting that this year, these 29 toilets should be ready in another two months time.

Q: You think the concept of portable toilets or namma toilets could help solve the sanitation problem that many railway stations are grappling with at this point in time?

A: Toilet sanitation has a host of issues. Namma toilet has the advantage that you can put biodigester. But a negative feature in that is if a plastic bottle or a plastic material is throw, it chokes it and it gives foul smell. They we are also building three glass-top coaches for tourism which is a new initiative.

Of course, we have taken help from Minister of Tourism. These will be ready in another 2-3 months time. And then once these are ready, it will be a swiss experience in India and we have also started dining car facility because we want our country to enjoy. The journey should not be just for the sake of journey.

It should be a pleasurable experience. You should have a high speed WiFi in the train, not only at selected stations. And of course, these can be commercially charged. These are viable options.

We are also going for rail museum upgradation for entertainment and other purposes which will start in another month or two months time. Then e-wheelchair, we extend it to several stations. Then e-bedroll is another initiative.

Then rail mitra seva which we have at some stations. Now we want to expand it several fold. And one thing more you must have heard is passenger insurance.

Q: I want to talk about personal insurance because that is an important service that your coming up with. Personal insurance for as low as Rs 2 per ticket?

A: No, it is Rs 0.92.

Q: Now that is phenomenal. How is that going to work out?

A: I was chasing it for the whole of last year. This has been my ambition that with such a huge population, travelling by train, it should be an asset and everybody should feel secure because government procedure settlement of claims are very lengthy, very cumbersome.

I have worked as Chief Claims Officer for the Northern Railway for three-four times and I have seen how people face the problem despite being monitored by PMO. So, with the pilot, our initial estimate given by one of the insurance companies was Rs 20. We were scared whether local people will go, commuters will go in mumbai.

But now, I am sure, we are starting with Rs 0.92. It is an insurance for Rs 10 lakh.

The pilot is going to be launched within the next 10-15 days by Honourable Prime Minister. Right now, we have given on single insurance that is Rs 10 lakh. It also covers Rs 7.5 lakh for permanent disability, Rs 2 lakh for hospitalisation and Rs 5,000 for baggage loss in case of death, etc.

But this is not my vision. My vision is that it should come down to Rs 0.1 per kilometre for ordinary commuter and next vision is that you do not have to buy even a ticket, your Aadhar card, you have got a credit card with you or debit card with you, it has all the data of Aadhar card linked to it and suppose you are given a card of say denomination of Rs 4,000 in mumbai.

On that card itself, becomes your authority to travel in the train for most of your journey for a limited distance, 30-40 km and then next phase could be that you do not have to even buy a ticket.

Board a train, get down from the station and based on your GPS location, the money is debited from your mobile. Or a challan is sent to your home or to your employer, everyday stuff.

Q: But that is a lot of numbers there and a lot of visionary talks.

A: No, this is not visionary. This is a real talk. After six months you will say that it has happened less than six months. So, I will give you a few examples. I gave you example of Katra.

Our Honourable Minster is very keen that this thing is put on fast tracks. And I am sure in about 10-15 days time, we should be able to get policy on retiree rooms, policy on executive lounges, policy on catering and then you can see the changes. Like, we started Gatimaan Express for tourists. We have introduced the most lucrative brands in the country like Wagh Bakri Tea and Girnar Tea which are served in the airlines for as much as Rs 100-200. We are supplying at, we get not even Rs 5 for a cup of tea. So, despite being a loss, we want to show changes.

The minister has also keen that we set up base kitchens or food factories like Noida food factory. It has to be a unique experience and after some time, people should come from abroad, like they come to see Delhi Metro, they should come to travel in railways because they say flight is so boring.

Given the choice, I would also prefer to go for a station redevelopment. Right now Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is handling it. And I will not call it, sky is our limit.

Q: One avenue that you are looking at, station redevelopment right now, you talked about a lot of bottlenecks in implementation of services be it with the authorities that you are working with or the local people. What is IRCTC doing to ensure effective and timely implementation of various services that you are coming up with?

A: Since our minister is keen, we take a lot of help from the ministry to provide the local officials and since I am from the railways also, sometimes, personal contacts work, sometimes my visit to senior officers work, so we try to persuade them and show them a positive side. Like I said, water vending machine gives employment to so many people, so it is a win-win situation for everybody.

Consumer gets a cheap water, instead of Rs 20 water, he can just manage with Rs 1 glass or maybe half a litre in Rs 3. The other advantage is that licensee is very happy, he makes money.

Q: I also heard that IRCTC is looking at opportunities abroad that you have been approached by various authorities from different countries. What are the prospects that you are looking at and what are the collaborations that we can see IRCTC getting into in the future?

A: All international collaborations require help from Ministry and External Affairs Ministry. So there have been people, I can give the example of Mexico where Tourism Minister organised a presentation for everybody, but specific presentation was also organised, IRCTC tour on our most luxurious train called Maharaja in their country. Because they said we want to develop it in our country.

They were even looking forward for a tie-up for laying a railway line. And they also wanted that coach production or factory could also be laid.

Q: So, are you seeking the answers from the Railway Ministry?

A: I am totally bound by government rules. So, it has to be government to government agreement. If I am given a choice, I will camp there for three months and get the orders.

Q: You talked about prospects in redevelopment of stations. What is it that you are currently looking at and are you not happy with what you are doing at this point?

A: No, I am not. For me, a big project gives you a lot of opportunities to try your innovations and my vision is to go for at least maybe 50-100 stations to redevelop. Of course, I cannot touch a station like New Delhi unless we have big people. But as a country, our outputs are way below our expectations, country’s aspiration and not even one-millionth of our potential.

And mumbai is one of the ideal places to do. Mumbai any small station development. So I had asked for it, I did some survey. Now I am looking for partners who can deliver miracles in Mumbai area.

Q: And where? Is there any places that you have identified in Mumbai?

A: If you take another 50 stations in a few days time, I have no problem. We have been approached by reputed builders. Of course, one we are approaching on our own. We have been approached by big finance companies, huge institutions.

Q: So, you are not really happy with the current state of railways?

A: No, I am happy. Happy means what? I feel there is a huge potential. We are at the bottom of the pyramid.

Q: Not many people know that IRCTC is one of the biggest e-commerce players in the country. You deal with 5.5 lakh ticketing passengers every day? What are the avenues that we are looking at here? What sort of revenues that you generate on daily basis?

A: Every day, we pay Rs 65 crore as advanced to railways. If it is a weekend, we pay Rs 130 crore. If it is a three day vacation combined, we pay Rs 300 crore. This is transferred to bank.

We had some problems in ticketing. We announce the capacity, memory from which used to be 2,400, we took it to 15,000. Beyond that, we are slightly reluctant because of three reasons.

One reason is that if it becomes too fast, the tickets will vanish in few seconds. Right now, there are few minutes available for a person to buy a ticket. We have put a check that you cannot buy a ticket through internet in less than 35 seconds.

So, 35 seconds for feeding you data and 10 seconds because we find a lot of complaints about people or agents or unauthorised, unscrupulous people manipulating the software.

Q: Then are you taking some initiatives for that?

A: Yes, we have taken huge initiatives. We have got our software certified by the most reputed group in the country to certify any IT sites, a Government of India undertaking under Department Of Electronics.

That has certified our site to be safe and they carry out several tests which are called vulnerability tests, penetration tests, whatever sites which we locate as vulnerable.

Q: There were reports until a few months back of data theft and that huge number of passengers have lost their data to hackers. Are there any merits to these reports? Were you able to identify the hackers?

A: I will put the facts. As far as we are concerned, we do not find a single hacking case. As far as data theft is considered, the data which we came across, that is data which is available in the market easily. Credit card data, we do not take, we do not keep, we do not maintain, we do not want to maintain also. So, as soon as you go for bank data, the site takes you to the bank itself.

We never found our working to be slow which is an indication of hacking. Once you take link to Aadhar card, we have taken a lot of initiatives, you cannot buy a ticket before 35 seconds. So, that is one check. But from the counter you purchase, but after 35 seconds, once it starts, it is thousands of people clambering for same seats. It is basically demand and supply issue.

But then, yes, we cannot allow unauthorisation, we lodged first information report (FIR), some people were arrested, case has been taken up with them. And then as and when we find anything going wrong, we take a drastic action even against agent. If he gets the money refunded and it does not pass on, the penalties are very severe.

Q: So, you are exploring a lot of other avenues other than ticketing for that matter and you may just give Cleartrip and Make My Holidays a run for their money. How is the business doing as far as the holiday packages are concerned?

A: I will give you the story of Make My Trip of Mr Deep Kalra which he narrated about two months back. He said they came almost as the same time as IRCTC came to the market, internet ticketing.

We started with just 29 tickets and today, we have grown almost a half a million fold. Then he said, for five years, they had to leave the country because the payment system was not established. People were not willing to accept that credibility. And the IRCTC established the credibility so much that they came back and now, today they are one of the market leaders and they use our site and we have got more than 33 banks who use our site and we have got huge tie-ups with state governments and State Bank of India included and other banks also.

Q: And you are also tying up with a lot of companies. What are the other tie-ups that you are looking at and how well are these tie-ups doing?

A: We are keen for tie-ups with each and every person who can deliver us goods. Only thing, he has to meet our criteria. We have only one criteria. The growth should be explosive, so anybody who can meet this challenge and prove his worth is always welcome.

Like I said, station redevelopment, we want rail over bridge to be laid in a few days time, anybody who can meet this challenge is welcome because that is the toughest thing to make in Indian conditions for Indians, not worldwide.

Q: We also heard that IRCTC is exploring an avenue to come up with an e-wallet.

A: We have been running e-wallet. We were charging Rs 250. I reduced it to Rs 50 and for three months, we have made it to zero. We want people to come here, station has gone up several fold.

Then we want to link up to Aadhar Card also. So, we are bound by RBI regulations. But my dream is that each and every person through his bank or otherwise it is linked to our system so, through voter card or Aadhar card. So once that is linked, I told you I do not want anybody to even go for buying a ticket.

Q: Let me then ask you, I can now buy an air ticket from IRCTC website, I can book a hotel, I can book a car. How well is the business doing? You have such a big user base.

A: I want to grow 1,000 fold. It will take at least 1,000 days.

Q: One area where we have seen a lot of transformation is catering. You have recently come up with e-catering. You have tied up with big giants to serve people food on demand from whichever restaurant they like. What is the demand like as far as e-catering is concerned?

A: When we launched this initially, for a few months, we were stick to just 50-60 meals a day. That was because a lot of restrictions were there. And as soon as our minister opened for 400 stations, A1,A and B class stations and others, it has grown 55 times. We are already touched 6,000.

Average is close to 4,000. But that is too small a figure. So, 4,000 meals may look big for a private person, but for an entity like Indian railways or IRCTC, it is just a load for 4-5 trains. So, we are running hundreds of trains every day.

Like I tell my people and generally, people take 3-4 cups of tea every day. So, there are 2.5 crore people going on the train every day. So, at least 10-15 percent of reserved people.