After the successful completion of the phase-I execution of the National Informatics Centre’s (NIC) e-office for 50,000 users in 58 units, the Indian Railways has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with RailTel for phase-II of the project.
RailTel is a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Railways. In phase-II, RailTel will register 39,000 users over 34 railway divisions on NIC’s e-office platform by 30 June 2020.
A government press release claimed that the second phase of the e-office execution started with a mandate to complete the work by March 2020, but RailTel completed the work ahead of time. The PSU successfully created more than 50,000 users in 58 units of the Indian Railways and trained executives to handle the platform in six months.
NIC’s e-office is a cloud-enabled software that is deployed from RailTel Tier-III certified data centres at Secundrabad and Gurgaon.
According to the release, the technology is based on the central secretariat manual of the e-office procedure (CSMeOP). Currently, four modules: file management system (eFile), knowledge management system (KMS), collaboration and messaging services (CAMS), and personnel information management system (PIMS) are part of the e-office system being implemented.
E-offices foster a paper-less culture that will not only save operational costs but also reduce carbon footprint, which is one of the most urgent needs of the world and directly impacts every citizen of the country, the release added.
Recently, the Indian Railways announced its plan to install internet protocol (IP)-based video surveillance systems (VSS) at stations across the country. The VSS will be set up in waiting halls, reservation counters, parking areas, main entrances/exits, platforms, foot-over bridges, and booking offices.
As OpenGov reported earlier, the Railway Board, the apex body of the Indian Railways, approved the installation of the VSS in 983 stations. The agency was allotted a budget of IN ₹250 crores (about US $35.1 million).
Four types of full HD cameras will be used for better coverage and clearer images: a dome type (for indoor areas), bullet type (for platforms), pan-tilt-zoom type (for parking areas), and ultra HD- 4k cameras (for crucial locations).
Also, CCTV camera live-feeds are displayed on multiple screens at the railway protection force (RPF) control room for monitoring. Recordings of the video feeds from CCTV cameras will be stored for 30 days for playback, post-event analysis, and investigation purposes. Important videos may be stored for a longer period.
Integrated security systems comprising of CCTVs have already been installed at 11 stations including Bengaluru with 71 cameras, Yesvantpur with 35 cameras, and Mysuru with 34 cameras.
With this, the South Western Railway, one of the 18 railway zones in the country, has operational CCTVs at 17 locations. Phase-I work will be completed by deploying functional CCTVs at 20 railway stations by the end of this month.
Security personnel can monitor these cameras not only from station control rooms but also from central security control rooms located at Divisional Headquarters, that is, in Hubballi, Mysuru, and Bengaluru.
