Fundamental upgrades may lead to a smoother, more reliable ticket booking experience. CRIS / PRS staff move to IRCTC proposed.
Big upgrades may be in store for the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and IRCTC’s website soon.
A move proposed by IR’s Transformation Directorate aims to implement a new-age ticketing system which will increase the number of transactions on IRCTC from the current level of 24,000 per minute.
The proposal envisages fundamental changes to the PRS, including a shift to modern, faster and more scalable databases, and an improved front end.
Funds have already been allocated for this purpose. In the first phase, Rs 36.64 crore has been earmarked for modernisation of CONCERT PRS. Phase two of PRS modernization has been given an allocation of Rs 109.44 crore.
IRCTC to take over PRS staff
Indian Railways (IR) is planning to transfer employees working on its passenger reservation system (PRS) with CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) to its public sector undertaking IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation).
Presently, IRCTC manages the front end and commercial aspects of the PRS while CRIS is responsible for the back-end, known as the PRS. CRIS is a society set up under the Railway Ministry in 1986 to manage the use of information technology in the organisation.
Fundamental Changes
The proposal takes into account seamless transfer from the old age to the new age ticketing system. For this, it has been mooted that the General Manager PRS at CRIS, report to the Chairman and Managing Director of IRCTC with the mandate of drawing up a plan to shift to the new system from CRIS to IRCTC without glitches in 90 days.
IRCTC on its part has to appoint a consultant to design and implement an IT ecosystem of similar magnitude and suggest a plan for seamless transfer to the new system according to the proposal. The timeline for this is 75 days says the proposal.
The Executive Director (Computerisation and Information Systems) Railway Board is the nodal officer for implementing these directives.
