The lockdown and efforts of minimizing human/physical contacts in work place has pushed up the digital platform usage of North Frontier Railway (NFR) replacing the manual filing system. The number of digital files of North frontier Railway offices on NIC e-office platform, implemented by RailTel, has increased approx. 4.5 times during the past 4 months (April-July 2020). Before lockdown end the number of e-files generated by NFR was 5207 and by end of July the number of e files created by users of NFR has increased to 24057.
The number e-receipts generated by users of NFR have alsoincreased approx. 4 times during this period. Also, 1478 new e-office users were registered during this period.RailTel, a Mini ratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, is implementing the NIC e-office suite for Indian Railways in a phased manner. All over IR, currently there are 104332users in 106 units of Indian Railways (Zone HQ, Divisions, PU, CTI etc) and as on31.7.2020 a total number of 1655748 e receipts and 547681 e files had been created.With usage of digital filing increasing rapidly, North Frontier Railway is in a fast track of adapting paperless office culture which will not only save operational cost but also reduce the carbon foot print.
Due to availability of e-office, majority of file work in North Frontier Railway now can continue smoothly without physical presence in offices which is a boon in a time of crisis. RailTel has also provided Virtual Private Network connections to Railway officials for enabling them to process the file works remotely. Quick disposal of files and systematic, timely monitoring of pending files are some of the other immediate advantage of NIC e Office.
Railway officials have also been provided with rigorous training by RailTel teams to handle e-office platform efficiently, we have made training videos and uploaded them on Youtube also so that the users can get a grip on the usage of e-office. The officials have been conditioned to give up the habit of using manual file system. We also have a helpdesk to assist any Railway users in case of any trouble in using the system.
NIC e-Office is a cloud enabled software developed by National Informatics center (NIC)that is being deployed/hosted from RailTel Tier III UPTIME USA certified data centres atSecunderabad and Gurgaon.
