June 9 2014: Indian Railways will finally and substantially harness information technology in its quest to modernise itself and make travel safer, more comfortable. In  his budget speed on June 8, Minister of Railways  D. V. Sadananda Gowda listed  some of the IT-fuelled tasks that the new government has set for itself. He said, Indian Railways is also going for a computer assisted Enterprise Resource Planning Solution, so that synergy is brought in.
The Railway Reservation System will be revamped into Next Generation e-Ticketing System. Ticket booking through mobile phones and through Post Offices will be popularized moving towards paperless offices in Indian Railways in 5 years. Other initiatives:

Wi-fi Services in all A1 and A category stations and in select trains;
Real-time tracking of trains and rolling stock;
Mobile based Wakeup Call System for passengers;
Mobile based Destination /Arrival Alert;
Station Navigation Information System;
Extension of Dual Display Fare Repeaters at all the Ticket Counters through PPP;
Digital reservation charts at Stations (Bengaluru model);
Extension of Computerized Parcel Management System;
Extension of logistics support to various e-commerce Companies by providing designated pick-up centres at identified Stations;
Providing education to children of Railway staff at remote locations through Railtel OFC (optical fibre cable) network.
Vehicle Borne Ultrasonic Flaw Detection System to detect rail and weld fractures.
Ultrasonic Broken Rail Detection System (UBRD) will also be tried at two locations as a Pilot Project.

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