Railways bank on artificial intelligence, data analytics to improve operational efficiency
New Delhi: The railways are set to go big with artificial intelligence and data analytics to improve its operational efficiency and has tied up with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad to analyze the data generated by the national transporter, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said.
He said the railways will set up a Centre for Excellence in this regard in the next three months.
The Railway Board has taken a decision to appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in every zonal railway whose mandate will be to keep track of emerging technologies in analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) and use it in the rail system, Yadav said.
We have passengers-related data, train operations-related data, freight data, and even asset-related data. We want to analyze all this data with the help of AI and analytics and use it in our Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the introduction of new trains, and even predictive asset maintenance. We have tied up with the Indian School of Business (ISB) for this, he said.
The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has been assigned to plan an introductory capacity building program and formulate a report on the industrial practices of AI on rail transport and benchmarking. It will also develop a report on establishing the centre for excellence and an advanced capacity building program.
Meanwhile, the railways have already trained 88 officials over the last two months for this purpose and such training will be provided for identified officials in every zone and division.
The training modules include cloud computing, data science, big data analytics, AI using reinforcement learning, and AI for autonomous vehicles.
According to officials, the railways has not only planned to have a CTO in zonal headquarters, but also an assistant chief technology officer (ACTO) in divisions directly reporting to the General Manager and Divisional Railway Managers respectively.
Six to ten officers in divisions and about 20 in zonal headquarters will be identified for training in data analytics and AI. They will be formally trained in institutes like IITs, ISB, IIMs, IIIT in the two subjects (of data analytics and AI).
The railways are also looking at the development of data sharing protocols with the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), RailTel, and others, they added.
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SWR announces special trains for passengers stranded by large-scale IndiGo cancellations
Bengaluru (PTI): The South Western Railway on Saturday announced a series of special trains, in coordination with Central, South Eastern and Southern Railways, to clear stranded passengers following large-scale IndiGo flight cancellations across the country.
The special services will operate between December 6 and 10 on high-demand routes, including Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Pune, Yesvantpur–Hazrat Nizamuddin, Shalimar–Yelahanka and Ernakulam–Yelahanka, officials said.
According to an official statement, SWR will run Train No. 06255/06256 between Chennai Egmore and KSR Bengaluru, 06257/06258 between Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central, 06259/06260 between Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin, and 06263/06264 between Bengaluru and Pune.
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Central Railway will operate Train No. 01413/01414 between Pune and Bengaluru, while South Eastern Railway will run Train No. 08073/08074 between Shalimar and Yelahanka. Southern Railway will operate Train No. 06147/06148 between Ernakulam and Yelahanka, the statement said.
Railways has advised passengers to check updated timings on its official channels and arrive early at stations.
For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have been significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggage has been misplaced.
