IR to heavily depend on IT & Telecom sector support for NexGen Rail Revolution in India

IR to heavily depend on IT & Telecom sector support for NexGen Rail Revolution in India

Railway Budget 2014 presented by the BJP Government offers more hopes to the India IT and telecom industry. Setting timelines would have assisted the ICT sector to get more support though the IT spending by railway.

Main beneficiaries of the Railway Budget 2014 would be enterprise networking vendors such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, HP, EMC, Microsoft, Riverbed, and Dell. IT spending will also assist Wi-Fi companies to look for more room for growth in India.

Incidentally, Railway minister did not keep deadlines to take Indian railways to the fast track. The Indian telecom industry guesses that there will not be enough spending during the current fiscal because most of the important measures – related to IT and telecom – are currently in the planning stage.

The Railway minister proposed Wi-Fi-services in A category trains and A1 stations. Though a well planned move, the scope of the work is limited to certain category. Also, telecom operators are yet to gear up to offer Wi-Fi broadband services across A1 stations and A category trains.

Several telecom operators categorically said that they will not invest in projects if they are not viable financially.

Digitization of reservation charts at stations – suggested in the Railway Budget 2014 – is unlikely to improve customer experience if the basic facilities are not upgraded to world class. If stations are not cleaned properly, what is the purpose of digitization? Are Railway officers trained enough to support the new IT revolution?

Working on making railway offices paperless in five years is one of the key developments in the rail budget. First, Railway minister has set a deadline. Second, paperless initiative encourages several PC, laptop and tablet companies to look for a strong Indian market. Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, etc. will be the immediate beneficiaries. Will the Railways start kicking off its paperless journey this year?

Will E-ticketing through your mobile phone as well as expanding the scope of online booking create business for telecom and IT companies? The business will depend on the customer experience in the initial phase of roll out.

Currently, online booking from a PC is a nightmare for average Indians. First, you do not have high speed Internet to connect to the railway website. Second, railway site is not accessible during peak hours. Will your smartphone and poor broadband Internet connection from telecoms such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, etc. create bad experience to customers? Are telecoms readying to invest more to take Railway to the growth path.

CCTVs will be installed at major stations in order to keep a check on cleanliness, the Railway Budget said. Surveillance will be a value addition to ensure safety of travellers.

Revamping of the entire reservation system will also encourage investments in IT and telecom. But the Railway budget 2014 does not talk about timeframe for action.

E-procurement will be compulsory for procurement over Rs 25 lakh. Status of ongoing projects will be made available online. Both will ensure that Railway is investing more in IT. Companies such as Dimension Data, Wipro, TCS, HCL, etc. are waiting for the right action.