Railways to Use AI in IRCTC Website and ISRO Satellite Data for Tracking Trains

In a major overhaul, the Indian Railways is revamping the IRCTC website and this include integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) for predicting booking pattern for passengers and suggest the best possible combination of trains available. This was announced by Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav in a virtual press meet.

Additionally, the railways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for satellite tracking of trains. ISRO will provide real-time data relating to the speed and location of the trains and arrival and departure.

The real-time satellite data about trains will also improve the efficiency in its operation and helps passengers to get to know the movement of trains on a real-time basis.

Notably, to track trains via satellite the Indian Railways has installed global positioning system in 2,700 electric locomotives and in 3,800 diesel locomotives, and plans to fit the GPS in 6,000 locomotives by December 2021. The data recorded by the GPS is used for control office operation, NTIS, analysis and safety purposes.

Besides, in order to introduce contact-less ticketing system, it is also working on issuing QR-Code enabled tickets, both through online and physical counters bookings.

A pilot of contact-less ticket-checking on the line of airport-like check in was already started at Prayagraj Junction of North Central Railway.

Paytm Achieves Over 1 Mn Train Ticket Bookings In A Month, Eye 3x Growth This Financial Year

M-commerce firm, Paytm has announced today that it is booking over 1 million train tickets in a month.It further boosts that it has become India’s largest train tickets booking platform after IRCTC making it a preferred platform for users to plan their journeys and book train, air, bus and hotels instantly.

The company launched online train ticket bookings in partnership with IRCTC in October of 2016 to become an integrated platform for all travel bookings. Currently, 90% of the train ticket bookings on Paytm are done through the mobile platform.

Commenting on the development, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm said, “Our partnership with IRCTC is a major leap towards bringing the trusted and convenient Paytm experience to train tickets booking. Emerging as the country’s largest platform in train ticket bookings is a definitive step towards our goal of building the country’s largest travel booking platform.”

In recent months, Paytm has witnessed exponential growth in its travel vertical with more than 10 million tickets sold in FY 2017. This year, the company is aiming to be the country’s largest destination for all travel booking needs. The travel marketplace team is headquartered in Bengaluru and has scaled up to 150+ members in the last 12 months. It is looking to ramp up to 250 in next two-quarters.

In May 2017, Paytm had unveiled its Payments Bank, becoming the third payments bank in the country, after Airtel and India Post.