With the ever-increasing use of digital technology all over the country, the Indian Railways have now planned to look after and monitor the cleanliness of the trains, easy ticket availability, food problems and other grievances of the passengers with the help of technology-based advancements.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN RAILWAY:
1) Whatsapp Groups to Monitor Cleanliness – One of the busiest railway zones in India, the Northern Railways will now have WhatsApp groups for every railway department including pantry, bedrolls etc, under the supervision of the senior officials, which will update information and status reports on the cleanliness of the trains on a day-to-day basis by onboard housekeeping staff (OBHS). People can send in their requests on the group and the same would be forwarded to the authorized representatives by the official overseeing the group.
Vishwesh Chaube, Northern Railway General Manager said, “WhatsApp groups have been created for train and pantry cleanliness, bedrolls, and functionality of air conditioners in trains. Photographs are being uploaded in these groups for monitoring by senior officials.”
Along with the technology-based cleanliness programme, the Railway has also set up a new plant at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi, which will help in cleaning the coaches in a few minutes. Besides, additional sanitary measures are also being taken and thus, bio-toilets are being constructed which would maintain the cleanliness of the railway station and railway tracks as well.
2) CSCs Connect with Technology for ticket booking – On the other hand, the government is taking many other major steps for the advancement of the Railway sector. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who is also the interim Finance Minister has announced that all 2.9 lakh CSCs will be connected with technology now for booking railway tickets. According to the reports, there will be no limitation on the number of tickets that can be booked from a CSC.
“Around 40,000 CSCs are providing this service, and IRCTC should accelerate and make sure that in the next 8-9 month every CSCs should have this facility,” Goyal said.
3) “Menu on Rail” App – The other technological advancement introduced by the Railway is that now, passengers can check the maximum retail price (MRP) of food items on IRCTC’s recently-launched app called “Menu on Rail” and make sure that they are not being fooled. The standard food prices (including taxes) will be mentioned for the train and also for the stations (excluding food plazas and fast food units).
The app can also be used on laptops and computers as a website version of the same has been launched along with the application. Now, the passengers may not face the problems of being overcharged and getting exploited by the food units in the Railways.
4) “Rail Madad” App – The railway minister also launched ‘Rail Madad’ application to take forward and respond to railway passenger grievances. The application enables the passengers to register a complaint against any problem through the mobile app as well as from the website version. The application provides them with a feedback on the status of redressal of their complaints. The introduction of the app will reduce the problems being faced by the passengers while traveling through the railways in India.
With the help of technology, the Railways aims to bring about higher transparency and accountability in its functioning and customer satisfaction.