Chennai: In an attempt to digitise the day-to-day paper work activities conducted by Indian Railways, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently rolled out the E-Office project.
According to a press release, the project is a mission mode project (MMP) under the national e-governance programme of the Government
of India.
It aims to usher in more efficient, effective and transparent inter government and intra-government transactions and processes.
The press release added that Indian Railways will shift from manual fi ling system to e-offi ce for its day-to-day activities to bring transparency
and effi ciency in functioning. RailTel has taken up the task to implement the project.
Speaking about the project to News Today, a senior Southern Railway official said, “The project aims to reduce paper-based and manual filing system prevalent across most railway divisions.”
Rail Partner App
The app was launched by Southern Railway in an attempt to provide authentic information regarding train timings and other such data. Railway officials revealed that many private apps share wrong information which leads to confusion among passengers. The app offers details about special trains, provides direct calling facilities to 20 commonly required helplines like onboard medical assistance, RPF, GRP, women helpline, E-Catering, Child helpline, phone numbers of all major stations, to name a few. The app allows users to enter their starting point and destination along with date, following which they receive information like train number, timings and travel time.
Hand held terminals
Southern Railway rolled out Hand Held Terminals (HHTs) for Traveling Ticket Examiners (TTEs). Some major advantages of HHTs is that it replaces paper charts used by TTEs on-board. It is easier to check tickets of passengers as HHTs are synced with passenger reservation system that enables chart downloads and uploading of modified charts after checking. The charts can be downloaded and accessed at times when there is no internet connectivity.
QR codes based tickets
QR codes-based ticketing system helps passengers to book tickets without the need to stand in a queue. Posters with QR codes are on display at various railway stations across Chennai. Passengers can scan them to book tickets through the UTS mobile application. By using the scanner in your smart phone, a passenger can scan the QR code poster. Once the code is scanned, the UTS app opens through which passengers can book their tickets. They are prompted to enter the destination station while the ‘From’ station is already filled based on their current location. Passengers can then choose the number of tickets and finally book their tickets.