Railway Digital India
Railway Digital India
Overview
“Railway Digital India” is the umbrella initiative that fuses Indian Railways with the national Digital India programme. It aims to transform the 170-year-old transport behemoth into a paper-less, cash-less, face-less and data-driven network where every passenger, vendor and employee transacts digitally, trains run on real-time information, and decision-making is powered by AI & analytics.
Key Facts & Figures
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Flagship digital portal | IRCTC Rail Connect (2017) |
| UTS app launched | 1 Sep 2014 (Chennai division pilot) |
| Paperless tickets share (2024) | 98 % of reserved & 78 % of unreserved |
| Digital payment share | ₹1.35 lakh crore (FY 24) – 96 % of total ticket value |
| One-Time-Password (OTP) based refund | Introduced 2016 |
| QR-coded platform tickets | Started 2019 – 2,000+ stations |
| Faceless ticket checking app (R-WIS) | Rolled out 2021; 40,000+ handheld devices |
| NGeT (Next Generation e-Ticketing) system | Cloud-based; peak 25,000 tickets/min |
| Rail Madad portal & App | 24×7 grievance; 99 % redressal within 72 hrs |
| AI-based “Ideal Train Profile” | Predicts demand; 5 % earning boost |
| Digital locker for records | RailCloud-DigiLocker integration 2022 |
| e-Office files in Railway Board | 100 % e-file since 2020 |
| RailDrishti dashboard | Real-time KPIs for 68,000 route-km |
| RailTel high-speed Wi-Fi | 6,000+ stations; 10 million daily users |
| Paperless medical claim (REDS) | 2023; 14 lakh employees covered |
Important Points
- All reserved tickets are generated through PRS (Passenger Reservation System) which is now hosted on RailCloud.
- UPI/BHIM, Paytm, debit-credit cards, e-wallets and RuPay pre-paid cards are accepted across 15,000 ticket counters.
- “Go-India Smart Card” is an NCMC-compliant RuPay debit card usable for booking, food & car parking.
- Unreserved passengers can buy tickets using the UTSonMobile app within a 5 km geo-fence of the journey origin.
- Digital signalling (KAVACH & CBTC) is part of the digital India master-plan to prevent accidents.
- Freight customers file RR (Railway Receipt) electronically through FOIS – no physical paperwork.
- Paperless office (e-Office 7.0) saves 120 tonnes of paper per year in Railway Board alone.
- Data analytics centre set up at Rail Bhawan (2021) crunches 350 GB of daily running data.
- AI chat-bot “ASK-DISHA” (2018) handles 8 lakh queries/month in English & Hindi.
- Digital biometric attendance (AEBAS) covers 100 % Railway employees.
- RailWire & Google Station provide free Wi-Fi with a 30-minute quota, extendable on payment.
- Digital museum “Virasat-e-Indian-Railways” uses VR/AR and is accessible via a mobile app.
- Paperless vendor bill tracking system (PBAS) has cut bill passage time from 60 to 10 days.
- Railways achieved the top rank among all ministries in “Digital India” scorecard for three consecutive years (2022-24).
Frequently Asked in Exams
- Full form & year of launch of RailCloud.
- Which app is used for paperless unreserved tickets?
- Name the digital grievance portal of Indian Railways.
- What is the peak booking capacity (tickets/min) of NGeT?
- Which technology is used for free station Wi-Fi under Digital India?
BETA
