Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Railways (PR) has failed to implement another project which was to help establish new and modern call centres and installation of trackers in trains for facilitating the passengers, Daily Times learnt through reliable sources.

Despite several claims of modernising the PR, the new system could not be implemented whereas it was announced by PR Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muhammad Javed Anwar in December 2017 that PR would be equipped with the latest call centres along with trackers of international standards which would facilitate and guide the passengers round the clock.

Sources informed Daily Times that in December, 2017, an official meeting was held in PR headquarters, Lahore where PR CEO Muhammad Javed Anwar had claimed that the present call centres and the railways inquiry number’s system were outdated and would be replaced with new systems because without installation of new and modern systems, PR would not be able to facilitate the passengers and improve the quality of information system and queries.

Sources further added that it was decided in the meeting that with the help of multi-national companies, PR would replace the current call centre with the new one and for that, PR had floated a tender and opened the bids and got the services of multi-national companies to setup latest call centres.

Sources added that the project was divided into two parts, the first was to install trackers in main line trains which are around 106 and the second phase was to establish call centres. Sources said, so far the same old system is being run by PR which is not satisfactory for the passengers or anyone else who wants to get relevant information regarding PR or train services.

Daily Times learnt that this project was at par with international standards in passenger sector of PR but had been lingering on for a long time.

The purpose of the project was to facilitate the passengers who were calling at the call centres and inquiring about the arrival or departure time of trains.

The centre was proposed to be established with the facilitation of trackers and the person in charge would easily locate the point of the trains through a tracker and would then inform the caller about its location and time of arrival at a certain station.

The Information Technology department of Railways had completed the task along with relevant paperwork and it was shared with the audit department as per departmental workflow. The audit department of PR had certain objections on the bidding process of the trackers because PR had already purchased some trackers a few years ago which could not be installed, sources informed. Therefore, the audit department instructed PR that before purchasing new trackers, railways should be justifying the purchase of the previous ones and provide a report on why those trackers could not be installed in time.

Railway officials who were already under observation by Supreme Court and National Accountability Bureau were afraid to go further with the project and thus like many other projects, this one also stopped.

Sources express their distress over the delay from the audit department and implementation of the process and remarked that PR was running the department with an ages old system and inefficient staff who was unable to understand new techniques and technologies for upgrading PR.

A train passenger, travelling from Lahore to Rawalpindi, Alia Rahman said, “It is comparatively a cheaper source for commuting and that is why we go for it, otherwise the system is very poor and I might change my option next time. There is no facility of call centres and I have to hold on the line for several minutes to talk to the concerned person for information about the trains or availability of tickets, as many a times the website is also down. The calls go unattended and I have to call many times or go to the station myself, which is a hassle for a woman. If ever I have inquired about the arrival or departure confirmation the person at the call center rudely replies that he is not the driver and cannot tell the exact time. Such attitude is irritating. I think this system should improve because like me, many others will also change their minds about travelling through trains, because we pay and surely demand good service.”

Pakistan Railways Public Relations Director General Najam Wali was of the opinion that the project was on priority but due to various technical reasons it was getting delayed.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.