CHRIST UNIVERSITY ASSIGNMENT

1. DATA ANALYTICS IN
RAILWAYS INDUSTRY
Name - Anusha HR
Register number - 2037033
2Applied Economics
Christ University

2. DATA IN INDIAN RAILWAYS
Indian Railways is an organisation of such epic proportions that words such as
‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’ seems inadequate. With route length of 95,981km,
Indian Railway (IR) carried 1.2 billion tonnes of freight and 8.4 billion passengers
during 2018-2019, making it the world’s largest passenger carrier and fourth
largest freight carrier. What this also means, from an operational analytics
standpoint, is a lot of data.
Data analytics technologies and techniques provide a means to analyse data sets
and draw conclusions about them which help organisations make informed
business decisions. Big data analytics is a form of advanced analytics, which
involves complex applications with elements such as predictive models, statistical
algorithms and what-if analysis powered by high-performance analytics systems.

3. APPLICATION OF DATA ANALYTICS IN INDIAN
RAILWAYS
There is a whole range of opportunities which IR can explore in the area of big
data analytics. Some of these applications include customer experience, train
scheduling, timetabling, improving security at railway stations, automatic charting,
network optimisation, crew management, inventory management, and IRCTC
ticket management. The existing data from the passenger reservation system,
operating control, CCTV cameras at stations, maintenance depots and stores, can
be used intelligently to yield business benefits in the above areas.
Using connected IoT sensors, historic data and analytics, the data can be turned
into useful information to improve asset utilisation and availability

4. ASSET MANAGEMENT IN INDIAN RAILWAYS
Indian Railways maintains huge terabytes of asset data. Using connected IoT sensors, historic data and analytics, the data can be turned into useful
information to improve asset utilisation and availability. As of now, some efforts have been made to improve asset availability by adopting better
maintenance strategies. These efforts have been made in departmental silos and lack a comprehensive approach. There is an opportunity to take a
collective initiative to improve overall asset utilisation on Pan-India basis

5. Indian Railways is envisaging converting its ‘freight examination yards’ into technology-
driven ‘Smart Yards’ for automatic detection of faults/defects/deficiencies in freight
wagons.
Though several systems have been installed for data collection and condition
monitoring for different assets, the analytics capacity of these systems is very limited.
Furthermore, all these data collection systems work in technical silos, each with its own
acronym, making it difficult to integrate data to acquire useful information.

6. CREATING A DATA DRIVEN RAILWAY
A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the
benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability.
A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability.
A lot of work is required to be carried out in the area of data collection, data management and data service provision, so that the benefits of data analytics can be reaped for improved asset reliability.

7. POINTERS TO BE NOTED
1.The creation of a supplier ecosystem with IoT-based capability
2.Data collection across all asset types and provision of new data collection equipment and
platforms
3.The opportunity for managed services through a single service integrator
4.Integration of asset data, operation data, asset data and maintenance using adequate interfaces
5.Easy mechanism to exchange asset data throughout the lifecycle of assets
6.Decision modelling and risk analysis tools to identify bottlenecks
7.Raise maintenance alerts for different assets to enable safe, efficient and effective delivery of the
operational railway
8.Strategic maintenance planning and creation of reports for easy accessibility of asset
information.
9.Distribution of tablets to field maintainers and direct access to asset data and maintenance
requests from central system through existing Wi-Fi facility, thus removing paperwork

8. Indian Railways must absorb these huge banks of data and capture them in a
national intelligence model; one that can serve this data-driven railway in a
cohesive, safe and cost-effective manner.
THANK YOU