The lockdown and efforts of minimizing human/physical contacts in the workplace has pushed up the digital platform usage of South Western Railway (SWR) replacing the manual filing system. The number of digital files of SWR on the NIC e office platform, implemented by RailTel, has increased more than 3 times during the past 4 months (April-July 2020). Post Covid, the number of e-files generated by SWR was 3623 and by the end of July the number of e-files created by users of SWR has increased to14,069. The number of e-receipts generated by users of SWR have also increased approx. 3 times during this period. Also, 803 new e-office users were registered during this period.
RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Railways, is implementing the NIC e-office suite for Indian Railways in a phased manner. All over Indian Railway, currently there are 1,05,110 users in 106 units of Indian Railways (Zone HQ, Divisions, PU,CTI etc) and as on 7.8.2020 a total number of 17,68,780 e receipts and 5,71,665 e files had been created.
With usage of digital filing increasing rapidly, SWR is in a fast track of adapting paperless office culture which will not only save operational cost but also reduce the carbon footprint.
Due to availability of e-office, the majority of file work in SWR 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 advantages of NIC e Office.
Railway officials have also been provided with training by RailTel teams to handle e-office platforms efficiently. For educating the users, RailTel has 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 motivated to give up the habit of using manual file systems. RailTel has also provided a help desk to assist Railway users in case of difficulty faced in working through the e platform.
NIC e-Office is cloud enabled software developed by National Informatics center (NIC) that is being deployed/hosted from RailTel Tier III UPTIME USA certified data centres at Secunderabad and Gurgaon.
The Zonal Headquarters, Hubballi and Bangalore division have been using e-office platform since July 2019 and Hubballi and Mysuru from Jan 2020 this year.
Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, GM/SWR has said that quick disposal of files and systematic, timely monitoring of pending files is possible in addition to the non contact situation which is the norm in this pandemic. SWR is also moving into a work culture through e-office where there is transparency and paperless working.
