Daily Times

Pakistan Railways is taking steps to become an E-office soon to digitalize its service and improve internal efficiencies through electronic administration.

The e-office platform aims to cater for the need for effectiveness and transparency in Governmental processes and service delivery mechanisms as well as help government departments to go paperless. The idea is being implemented with the help of the National Information Technology Board (NITB) which will be responsible for providing the relevant training to the staff of Pakistan Railways.

E-Office is a digital workplace solution that replaces the existing method of manual handling of files and documents with an efficient electronic system. According to an official source, Pakistan Railways will be on e-office soon which will not only facilitate the users but also make the entire system of the department transparent. Listing other steps taken by the department, the source revealed that Pakistan Railways has developed a software application for journalist concession card management.

All the related data for journalist concession cards across the country is managed by the Directorate of Public Relations. The software has been prepared and is linked with the centralized reservation centre as well. About the Networking Monitoring System (NMS), the source said that the software has been deployed on the premises of the Directorate of IT with the help of this system all network deployed all over the railways network is being monitored critically and in case of any disconnections the concerned service provider is taken up and pursued till the fault is removed.

The efficiency of the network is being monitored through this system from audit perspective as well, it said. Regarding the provision of internet facilities at different levels, the source said that the entire railway headquarters office is covered with internet service. Internet facility is also been provided at the Ministry via the PR Headquarters office (as a backup link).

It was decided by the management of Pakistan Railways to develop an e-ticketing system with the latest technology indigenously. To implement this idea, Pakistan Railways hired IT professionals from the market and developed the software, which has been deployed and in operation since May 2016. As the e-ticketing system has now been deployed on the latest tools and techniques, to facilitate the management of earnings at the day’s end, a train train-wise earning portal has been devised.

This portal indicates complete information about the financial aspect from the commercial point of view and provides the live incremental financial position concerning passenger earing.

The software for the email exchange server has been installed in the IT Directorate with the viewpoint that emails being used previously from the web hosting company were bounced back as a result e-ticketing client of Pakistan Railways was not in a position to approach this office in case of complaints and claim of refund. In addition to the above facility the email addresses have also been issued to the officials of Pakistan Railways to communicate on officials’ email within or out of the organization, it added.

They developed the software for the court cases for all of the Pakistan Railways System. The software has now been developed and deployed on the premises of the consumers in all divisions. In light of the present scenario, the legal department is being facilitated regarding information on all basic ingredients of every legal case and progress made so far.

To a question, the source said Pakistan Railways has launched an awareness campaign to educate the public about the risks associated with trespassing, crossing railway tracks, and carrying prohibited items such as gas cylinders, weapons without a license, cartridges, drugs, and daggers. “The campaign is launched on the directives of Minister for Railways Shahid Ashraf Tarar and Secretary Syed Mazhar Ali Shah which will not help the department to control accidents but also win the confidence of the passengers of the rail” he added.

The official source said, “Pakistan Railways will use all the social media platforms including print, electronic media, twitter, Facebook, poster and pamphlets to create an awareness among the citizens about a safe train journey.” He said the department has also asked all the divisional superintendents to ensure checking of luggage of passengers at entry points with scanners, metal detectors and walkthrough gates.