With smartphones becoming popular among the masses, Indian Railways has introduced various mobile apps for the convenience of passengers, said Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday.

Goyal on his official page said, “Indian Railways has been closely linked to using IT for delivering services. Computer ticketing facility was introduced in Delhi region way back in 1982-83, long before computers became popular in India. E-ticketing or online booking has grown from strength to strength.”

The new railway apps will reshape service, delivery and complaint redressal mechanism in almost every sphere, he said.

The apps will help in reducing turnaround time, eliminate hassles for users and bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of railways.

The various other functions are –

• Rail Saarthi has a single window interface that makes it user friendly. Passengers can use this App to book their tickets, enquire about the train status before starting a journey and share feedback after its completion.
• UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) App can be used to purchase unreserved train tickets. This also allows one to buy platform or season tickets. There is no need for taking print out of the contents. Passengers can just display it on their mobiles by using show ticket feature.
• IRCTC Rail Connect is a comprehensive App with facilities of purchasing a train ticket, with links to other apps for purchasing air ticket, booking a meal and plan a trip with IRCTC tourism feature.
• IRCTC Tourism App helps you to plan your vacation and book tour packages for travelling within India at comparatively affordable prices.
• IRCTC Catering– Food on Track App allows you to book a meal of your choice anywhere in the country. You can opt from Cash on Delivery or Credit Card options for payment. All you need to do is use your PNR number, view the menu, and order a meal.
• NTES (National Train Enquiry System) App is highly useful for people who commute daily or take frequent trips. It provides commuters with train schedule and real time-status information, like live stations or cancelled trains.
• COMS (Complaint Management System) is the App to share any rail related complaints.
• Coachmitra and Cleanmycoach are pair of useful Apps which help the travellers to get their compartments cleaned immediately. Feedback can be sent on the website CLEANMYCOACH.COM COACHMITRA.
• Railways Parcel Application App helps users to know the current status of their parcel booked with the Railways and calculate the approximate fare based on weight and scale of the train” the page added.

Railways are in the process of developing more apps and increasing the scope and volume of services being delivered through this user-friendly medium.

The railways, which already offers a 0.5 per cent discount on the purchase of monthly travel pass if the payment is made through debit and credit cards, is planning to extend the benefit to unreserved categories too, the Economic Times reported.

In a bid to push digital transactions, the railways has already waived service charge on tickets booked through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website and also offered a 5 per cent discount on payments made online for services like catering and booking retiring rooms.

Last week, the railways said passengers can now book their tickets on an app called BHIM, buoyed by a 12 per cent increase in the number of reserved tickets being booked digitally.

The BHIM mobile app was launched by the government after demonetisation to facilitate instant fund transfers.

Online purchases of reserved railway tickets have surged to 70 per cent from 58 per cent in November 2016. About 30-50 million passengers in the reserved category are reported to have switched over to digital payments.

Railway revenue from reserved tickets is Rs 120 crore a day, of which Rs 25-30 crore is transacted at ticket counters. Of the 1.25 million passengers a day who buy reserved tickets, around 750,000 now book online.

“Around 3-5 crore people in the reserved (ticket) category have migrated towards digital transactions through e-ticketing. At the counters, around 30 per cent passengers buy reserved tickets. We have installed card swiping machines for debit or credit cards”, said Mohd Jamshed, Member-Traffic Railway Board.

Indian Railways is working out a plan to terminate the train services that run much below their passenger capacity. The move is aimed at cutting down on revenue losses due to heavy operational costs of these trains.

The Railway Board is in the process of finalising the criteria to decide on the trains that would either be terminated or merged with other trains on the same route. A decision in this regards is likely by February 2018.

According to Railway sources, if the bar is fixed at passenger occupancy below 50 per cent, then many trains will have to be terminated. However, the Railways will keep in mind that there are other trains on the route. “It has been observed that several trains run below normal passenger capacity on daily basis. This causes huge revenue loss and puts extra pressure on the already choked railway network. Rationalising these trains is also likely to impact the punctuality of other trains on same routes,” said a Railway Ministry official.

The official said if there are more trains on same routes, then either the routes would have to be changed or merging of two trains could be done to cater to passengers.

Punctuality of trains is also a major area of concern for the Railways. Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has issued directions to improve the punctuality of premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto. Railways face revenue loss of over Rs.30,000 crore annually on account of subsidy and concessions. Officials said if the idea is to run the Railways like a commercial organisation, hard decisions were the need of the hour. Several sections such as Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai run below their capacity, and the purpose is to weed out trains that don’t see high passenger occupancy, sources said.

The country’s largest public transporter is also reviewing the status of 171 projects, mostly new lines, worth over Rs.1.5 lakh crore as they have not taken off in over a decade. Majority of these projects were announced by former rail ministers Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee in their rail budgets.

Goyal, during a review of pending projects, directed the Railway Board to decide the fate of these projects for they have become a financial burden on cash strapped railways. In total, 491 projects – new line, gauge conversion and doubling of tracks – worth Rs.4 lakh crore are pending.

The Indian Railways will soon start making public a list of its best and worst performing trains and zones, with an aim to improve service standards by encouraging competition within the organisation. The zones and trains will be ranked on parameters such as cleanliness and punctuality, which are two longstanding issues for the railways, a top rail ministry official told ET.

This initiative is part of railway minister Piyush Goyal’s efforts to give the national transporter a performance makeover before the 2019 general elections, while also ensuring at least a 50% reduction in derailments and other accidents. The railways would make a list of the bottom and top ten trains of every zonal railways, the official said. The Indian Railways has 17 zones, which are divided further into sub-zones i.e. Divisions.

“The list would be made on the basis of housekeeping and environment, coaching standard and the punctuality of trains,” he said. “The railway minister has already put in place a monitoring team. All information related to trains and zones would be made public.”

The state-run transporter plans also to launch a mobile application for passengers that could list these trains and zones. The list will be updated regularly. The railways’ renewed priority on safety and repair of tracks and trains has hit operations badly with punctuality dropping to around 70% now from the average of 77-80%.

Goyal has told his officials to wrap up the maintenance work at the earliest to ensure at least 95% on-time performance. “There’s a renewed focus in the railway board to push the service standards immediately. We are already providing real-time updates to passengers through SMS if their train is late and are also mentioning the reason why it is late. The minister wants the functioning to be very transparent,” the official added.

The move makes perfect sense. Rail passengers can now grade customer satisfaction online after each journey. And the Railways do need to leverage big data to better track service quality. There should be much scope to explore co-branding opportunities as well. For instance, the hospitality industry would be keen to join hands with Railways for the cleanliness and upkeep of particular trains and routes. There should also be scope for players in the travel and logistics industry to tie-up with the Railways to boost performance standards and punctuality.

The railways has planned an exclusive terminal for suburban rail service in the Cantonment station premises. “We will be making a proposal to the Railway Board,” said Divisional Railway Manager R.S.Saxena, confirming the development.

If the Board too favours it, the ministry will include the project in its next year’s budget and chalk out plans on its implementation, including the model and funding.

Bengaluru lacks a suburban terminal like the one at Churchgate in Mumbai, which has helped the government address transportation needs of a large number of Mumbaikars. “We have the land near the Bamboo Bazaar area. We only need to build a terminal like Churchgate in Mumbai,” a railway official said. The railways has plans to connect the proposed metro lane with the suburban terminal through a skywalk or subway later.

The railways wants to run suburban trains from here to several places including Nelamangala, Mandya, Marikuppam, Tumakuru, Hosur and Gowribidanur. This will also provide critical connectivity to software suburbs like Sarjapur (Carmelaram station) and Electronic City (Heelalige station) which comes on the Hosur section and to Whitefield which comes on the Malur sector, besides airport as well.

The railway officials have asked for 10 acres of land owned by Binny Mills and have been pursuing it with the Infrastructure Development Department. If this piece of land is acquired and given to them, they would shift maintenance infrastructure such as pit-lines and stabling lines to the new site and expand the city railway station with two dedicated platforms to run suburban train service.

“We cannot currently run a service to or from the city railway station in view of the congestion. We cannot think of running a service from Kengeri to Cantonment and beyond because platforms are not available,” the official said. The railways, he added, is already running 100 suburban services a day and once they create the infrastructure, additional rakes and new services will follow.

The number of suburban services from Bengaluru, however, pales in comparison to the services in Mumbai. In September, the railways added 100 new local trains to the Mumbai suburban network, taking the total suburban services in the coastal city to 3083 services.

The railway officials in Bengaluru, however, maintained that the suburban services fall in the domain of the state government and the railways could do its bit only with the help of the state.

The suburban rail policy requires both the state and the Railway Ministry to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with equity participation of 20% each. The SPV is required to arrange the balance cost of the project through debt or other sources while the state government has to provide guarantee for the loans. In a recent letter, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan (BJP) has offered to provide funds from his local area development (MPLAD) fund to upgrade the infrastructure at the Cantonment railway station to run suburban train services.

Indian Railways carries over 2 crore passengers per day. For the convenience of passengers and promoting digital payments,  Railways has introduced a new payment facility while booking tickets at railway counters. Railways has extended the facility to pay for train tickets through UPI/BHIM to railway counters. Customers booking tickets online through IRCTC, the online ticketing arm of Indian Railways, had earlier access to UPI/BHIM facility for paying for e-tickets. Bharat Interface for Money or BHIM app is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). The BHIM app is inter-operable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications and bank accounts. In less than a year, the number of daily transactions through BHIM app has reached 2.8 lakh.

Train Ticket Booking Through BHIM/UPI At Railway Counters: 10 Things To Know

The facility to book train tickets at railway counters via the BHIM app was implemented from December 1, 2017.

The Railways said this facility will be available for booking of reserved tickets from Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and season tickets (monthly/quarterly) from Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters.

There would be no transaction charges for a period of three months from passengers for the new train ticket booking facility.

Passengers will be able to receive information on the fare to be paid at the railway counters by sharing their travel details.

If a customer opts to pay through UPI/BHIM, the counter person will select UPI as payment option and request for passenger’s Virtual Payment Address (VPA).

The railway counter person will enter the Virtual Payment Address (VPA) to initiate the transaction in the terminal.

The passenger will receive a payment request on the mobile to confirm payment. The passenger will be required to accept the payment request and the passenger’s linked account will be debited the fare amount.

Once the transaction is successful and verified on the system, the counter person will print the ticket and hand it to the passenger.

Besides promoting the government’s initiative of increasing digital/cashless transaction, the new payment mechanism at railway counters will offer additional payment option to customers availing railway services. There is no need to share bank account or credit/debit card number.

The BHIM app is easy to use and supports payment through multiple banks on a real time basis.

Six wagons of a goods train derailed between Dumuriput and Damanjodi railway stations in Odisha’s Koraput district, cancelling and disrupting movement of several trains on the route today, an East Coast Railway official said.

No one was injured in the accident.

The incident happened shortly after midnight last night when the goods train was approaching route number three of Damanjodi yard, the ECoR official said.

The additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) of Waltair railway division of ECoR zone along with safety officers of engineering and mechanical branches rushed to the site, he said.

Restoration work is in progress and normal train services on the line is expected to be restored soon, the official said.

Ashwani Lohani, Chairman Railway Board (CRB) visited Secunderabad on 6^th December 2017.  During this maiden visit of the CRB to South Central Railway, he undertook an extensive inspection of Secunderabad Railway Station and Carriage Workshop, Lallaguda before addressing a meeting of Officers at Rail Nilayam, the Zone’s Headquarters. He was accompanied by Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, South Central Railway during his day long schedule.

Commencing his visit with the inspection of Secunderabad Railway Station, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman Railway Board was all praise for the excellent standards of upkeep being maintained at the station. He undertook a check of the maintenance of platforms, the waiting rooms, toilets, retiring rooms, catering units, water dispensing facility circulating area etc. He was appreciative of the quality of services at the station. The Chairman Railway Board was shown around the Security surveillance control room at Secunderabad station and was briefed on the Hawks eye being kept on the entire station premises through the CCTV Cameras and Monitors. He was also apprised of some cases, where the CCTVs helped nab culprits.

The Chairman Railway Board, later visited the Carriage Workshop, Lallaguda and inspected all the maintenance and repair shops at the Workshop. The Chief Mechanical Engineer, Arjun Mundiya and Chief Workshop Manager, M. Vijay Kumar briefed him on the modernization plan of the Workshop, which is considered to be one of the premier Coach Maintenance facility on Indian Railways. The CRB was impressed with the quality of work here and also expressed his appreciation for the technology up gradation, ambience and the green initiatives undertaken here. Subsequent to the inspection, the CRB interacted with representatives of unions, associations and individual employees. Addressing them, he shared his nostalgic feelings since he had served here during the initial days, over 3 decades back. He called upon the workforce to dedicate themselves in performing to the highest levels, so as to take Indian Railways forward. Ashwani Lohani, paid floral tributes to Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, on the occasion of Maha Parinirwan Divas at the workshop premises.

Later during the day, Ashwani Lohani, reviewed the performance of the Zone at a meeting held at Rail Nilayam, which was attended by all Senior Officers of the Zone, besides the Divisional Railway Manager’s of all six divisions through video conferencing. Addressing the meeting, the CRB said that SCR integrates the best work practices of the North and the South of India, owing to its own central location on the Indian Railway map. Calling upon the Railway Officials to accord utmost priority to safety, punctuality and mobility, he stated that these three aspects reflect the competence of Railways. There should be no unsafe condition on Railways, he stressed. He also wanted that the work process on Railways be simplified and a HR centric approach be adopted. Sharing his views, the Chairman Railway Board stated that the Women workforce shall be given all facilities at the workplaces. He wanted that the stake holders of Railways should be considered as partners, so as to build up a common positive approach towards taking the organization forward. He assured of all encouragement to the officers in their decision making and wanted them to work without fear. V.K.Yadav, General Manager made a power point presentation on SCR’s performance and achievements. The Divisional Railway Managers also interacted with the Chairman Railway Board.

 

The Indian Railways’ financing arm today listed its first green bond on the London Stock Exchange with an aim to finance infrastructure for dedicated freight corridors and passenger transport in India.

Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) was set up in 1986 as the dedicated financing arm of the Indian Railways for mobilising funds from domestic and overseas Capital Markets.

The 10-year dated green bond raised $500 million with an annual yield of 3.835 per cent as it listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)’s new International Securities Market (ISM).

The bond, the proceeds of which are aimed at financing or refinancing infrastructure for dedicated freight railway lines and public passenger transport in India, was more than three times oversubscribed as it received strong international investor support.

“We are very delighted on the successful launch and completion of this transaction which establishes IRFC’s status as one of the most sought-after Indian state-owned enterprises credit in the international bond markets. This was IRFC’s return to the international bond markets since February 2014, so investors were very keen to gain exposure to a rare high quality credit from India. The issue has been oversubscribed by 3x times and managed to achieve a very strong price compression. The successful completion of the deal underscores investor’s confidence in IRFC,” said S.K.Pattanayak, Managing Director, IRFC.

“Our debut green bond is a significant milestone for IRFC, supporting the company’s ambitious infrastructure green projects which includes procurement of rolling stocks for electrifying rail tracks across India,” said S K Pattanayak, the IRFC Managing Director. “Not only was the bond three times oversubscribed but today we have also achieved our aim, through London, to increase our investor base across the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa),” he added.

The IRFC listing marks the sixth green bond transaction on LSE by an Indian issuer and fourth on the new ISM.

The bond is certified by Climate Bonds Initiative, an international, investor-focused not-for-profit, which helps build transparent assurance frameworks around green bond investment.

Sean Kidney, CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative, said: “Indian Railways is the third state-backed entity to seek global exposure by issuing a certified green bond and listing in London.

“This IRFC green bond and the previous issuance from the IREDA (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency) and the PFC (Power Finance Corporation) are a sign of the enormous market opportunities for international investors in green energy, transport and infrastructure to meet India’s intertwined climate, energy and development goals”.

The LSE said the latest bond listing demonstrates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2015 commitment to funding India’s infrastructure and growth through the issuance of over 1 billion pound worth of Masala bonds.

“Today’s green bond listing is a significant milestone for India and the IRFC, allowing the country to further tap a dynamic new international channel of finance for Indian infrastructure,” said CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc Nikhil Rathi, who described Indian Railways as the “heartbeat of the Indian economy”.

“It also re-enforces the progress being made in the Energy for Growth partnership established in April between the UK and India, strengthening London’s position as India’s closest and most valued funding partner.

“There is an undeniable shift in momentum in the green and sustainable financing across the globe. The London Stock Exchange Group is at the forefront of this green financing movement, developing innovative products and services in partnership with our customers,” Rathi said.

The London Stock Exchange Group said it has been supporting investors and issuers in the transition to a low- carbon and sustainable economy for over a decade, developing innovative products and services in close collaboration with the market.

To date in 2017, there has been 64 per cent growth in the number of green bonds listed on the LSE compared to 2016 and a 65 per cent increase in money raised.

In the same period, 23 green bonds have been listed in London, raising $9.4 billion, compared to 14 green bonds which raised $5.7 billion in 2016.

In total, there are 61 green bonds listed in London that have raised over $20 billion in aggregate terms across seven currencies.

“The launch of the deal at initial price of UST + 165ps area and a final pricing at UST +145bps reflected the strength of the orderbook and saw investment interest coming from high quality investors in Asia, Europe and Middle East, and offshore US. The successful transaction followed an extensive road show in Singapore, Hong Kong and London. At UST +145bps, this represents the tightest 10-year spread paid by an Indian public sector corporate in the last decade in the USD markets. ”

Barclays, HSBC, MUFG and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint bookrunners and joint lead managers for the issue.

Setup in 1986, IRFC is wholly owned by the Government of India. It is under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways (MOR) and plays a critical role in the Indian government’s plans and policies given its exclusive role as financier to MOR.

Buoyed by a 12% surge in the number of reserved tickets being booked digitally, the Railways on Thursday said passengers can now book their tickets on an app called Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM).

Ticket buyers can use the BHIM app from Friday, said Mohd Jamshed, member (traffic) of the railway board. Before demonetisation, around 58% of reserved tickets were booked online. The number has risen to 70% since October 2016, he said.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, handles online ticketing operations of the national carrier.

BHIM or UPI (Unified Payments Interface) promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi post demonetisation facilitates instant fund transfers between two bank accounts on a mobile platform. Details of the beneficiary’s bank account are not needed for this.

Indian Railways has seen a surge in digital payments since October 2016 through e-tickets, but at counters, only 2-3% transactions are cashless. “Around 3-5 crore people in the reserved (ticket) category have migrated towards digital transactions through e-ticketing. At the counters, around 30% passengers buy reserved tickets. We have installed card swiping machines for debit or credit cards,” he said.

But the Railways wanted to find a way to help passengers who did not wish to carry card or cash, but just their phones, he said. “So we are starting UPI from tomorrow. Passenger can go to the counter with their handsets and get their reserved tickets,” he said.

Reserved tickets worth around Rs80 crore are bought through e-ticketing daily while tickets worth Rs30 crore are purchased from counters at railway stations, Jamshed said.