Railways has nearly 50 apps, one for each service!
The Indian Railways is a shining example of Digital India: in the last four-five years, it has increased its app count drastically. What started with basics, like booking tickets, now offers an app for almost every service, like ordering food on trains and booking parcels. That accounts for some 50 apps developed by the Railways itself, plus another 200 by private individuals/firms.
Passengers can use these apps for various services
For passengers, there's the most important - the IRCTC app - on which you can book tickets. The 'National Train Enquiry System' (NTES) app allows you to view train schedules and status. You can download 'Menu on Rail' to order food in trains. For sending and tracking parcels, there's 'Rail Parcel.' The latest is 'UTS on Mobile' for booking and cancelling unreserved tickets.
SAARTHI: The soon-to-be all-inclusive app
There are apps for employees too. For example, the 'Railway Employee Self Service' (RESS) app, created by a private developer, allows staff members to access their personal data, including salary details, PF, income tax projections and more. Earlier, one needed to download each individual app for that particular service, but Railways is now integrating all under an umbrella app called SAARTHI, an official said.
30,000 downloads daily, more than 1,00,000 subscribers, claims Railways
App for the Railways are made by its in-house unit called the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS). On an average, 30,000 people download its mobile apps daily, Railways said, and it has more than 1,00,000 subscribers. Private developers harvest Railways' data to build their own apps providing a variety of services. Most of these are available for both Android and iOS platforms.
A word of caution from an expert
However, an IT expert has a word of caution: "People get confused with the host of applications on Google Play Store and other private mobile applications are getting a pie of the business, which should have been for the Railways' entirely."
