The Indian Railways has adopted an e-office system to make its operations paperless, efficient, transparent, and quick.
According to a press release, the implementation of phase-I of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) e-office suite has been completed ahead of time by the telecom infrastructure provider, RailTel.
The NIC e-office is a cloud-enabled software developed by NIC that is being deployed/hosted from RailTel Tier III certified data centres at Secundrabad and Gurgaon.
The suite is built as a single reusable system by bringing together independent functions and systems under a single framework to improve productivity and accountability in the workplace.
RailTel provides e-office solutions from planning to commissioning along with user training and support for a smooth transition from a manual to a digital workplace. It creates a reliable, efficient, and effective way to handle office files and documents.
The project was carried out under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two sides in March 2019 with a mandate to complete the work by March 2020.
By October-end, RailTel created more than 50,000 users in 58 establishments of the Indian Railways, which have adopted a paperless work culture and trained their executives to handle the platform.
The release said there will be absolute transparency once written on the file is archived. There is also a monitoring mechanism to check where files are being held up.
This will enable the quick disposal of files and the systematic and timely monitoring of pending files. With these advantages, the Indian Railways will be changing the work culture to provide better services to the public.
The e-office fosters a paperless culture that will not only save operational costs but also reduce the carbon footprint.
It is based on the central secretariat manual of the e-office procedure (CSMeOP). Currently, four modules are part of the e-office system being implemented. This includes a file management system (eFile), a knowledge management system (KMS), collaboration and messaging services (CAMS), and personnel information management system (PIMS).
Indian Railways E-office implementation is a mission mode project (MMP) under the national e-governance programme. The project aims to usher in paperless, more efficient, effective, and transparent inter-government and intra-government transactions and processes.
An MMP is an individual project within the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) that focuses on one aspect of electronic governance. Within NeGP 2.0, “mission mode” implies that projects have clearly defined objectives, scopes, and implementation timelines and milestones, as well as measurable outcomes and service levels.
Earlier this month, the Indian Railway announced it is planning to adopt a new technology HOG (head-on generation) for trains. It will eliminate the rumbling sound of the railways, making trains silent.
Through this technology, the power will be drawn from the elevated electric supply and will assist rails to run. At present, trains run at the two power generator cars which emit fumes and produce noise. This power generator will not be operated after the arrival of HOG in Indian Railways.
