Background:
Pakistan
Railways, trying to implement an online system for booking journeys have faced
serious backlashes recently. From the system being crashed due to overload, to
the issues in payment clashes, leading to extreme burden at over the counter
ticketing. This system failure of the online reservation has resulted in severe
losses for Pakistan Railways in a time span of just 14 hours. (ARY News)
Filling the Gaps:
On 11th November 2021, Thursday, Islamabad, Pakistan Railways signed an agreement with a Chinese IT firm to implement the project of a developing a single platform with utilization of Artificial Intelligence to provide customer facilitation to the users of Pakistan Railways.
Project Details:
The project is handed over to
NORINCO (China North Industries Group Corporation) to execute the plan, build
the AI based system, Operate and transfer it in a time span of 10 years.
This
pact comes under the administration of Railways Automated Booking and Travel
Assistance (RABTA) introduced by the Ministry of Railways, Pakistan to finally
integrate the Information Technology systems to enhance the efficiency of the
Railways.
The Chairman of the Railways
Ministry, Mr. Habib-Ur-Rahman Gilani claims that under this pact, NORINCO will
implement and develop the system for PR, while they would be spending nothing.
Under this accord, the profits will be split among the two partners, where PR
will get its fair share of the ticker price, freight and value-added services.
The agreement was signed by Azam
Ghafoor, the Director of IT Pakistan Railways, and Zhidan Wu from China’s
NORINCO on 11th November 2021, Thursday, in Islamabad. (DAWN)
Idea Behind the Project:
The main idea behind this project
was to develop a single interface for the people of Pakistan to locate, book,
and pay for each mode of transportation along a journey, as well as introducing
an AI based system to enhance efficiency of the national asset while at the
same time asking the professionals to do the job to be safe from data breaches
and hacking attacks.
Possible Outcomes of the
Project:
The introduction of an IT system adopting the AI-based approach for a government institute is aiming at some desirable outcomes:
- A single interface system integrated into the RABTA platform on AI-based approach.
- Plan, book, and pay for door to door journeys using that single user interface.
- Choose train seats, purchase tickets, and check train status.
- Select and change in-journey meals and refreshments.
- Order car rentals, book hotels and pay rentals.
- Save time by using the platform rather than waiting in lengthy ques for booking of each transportation mode.
- Reduce the burden of overloaded staff at Pakistan railways booking and reservation offices.
- Enhance the efficiency of output at PR and increase overall profits for the national asset.
Possible Downside:
There
are certain downsides of an IT-based program in a country like Pakistan, that
is still on its way to become digital.
- An artificial intelligence program of such large scale do require a team of high caliber to run and operate, once the program is fully developed and handed over to the PR. Therefore, they must plan ahead and start organizing a team that can lead this program to success smoothly.
- Another possible downside to such an innovative service in Pakistan can be the lack of education and knowledge of majority of citizens in Pakistan to operate such caliber of system. When Metro service was initially launched in Pakistan, it faced some heavy knocks in infrastructure, due to failure of people to operate it. In this regard, PR must be prepared in advance for this project, and develop simple to understand and implement tutorial plans for the general public.
- In the digital world we live in today, the biggest threat is theft of data by the hackers. There have been many examples in the recent past where the state owned institutions web domains were hacked and the data was lost, such as the case of Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) facing data theft, and had to hire foreign services to recover the data. Pakistan Railways must implement strong counter measure systems to be safe from such catastrophes.
To
sum up, the idea behind this project is truly innovative, and will tremendously
boost the progress of Pakistan in its journey to become Digital. However, would
Pakistan Railways be able to cope up with the challenges that concern this
project? That’s a questions only time will answer.
Sources Used
1. https://www.dawn.com/news/1657601
2. https://arynews.tv/pak-railways-ticket-reservation-system/
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