Railways Will Fix Train Schedules Using Artificial Intelligence! Officers To Be Trained At IIMs, IITs On AI

Indian Railways is going tech-savvy! Yes, our very own Indian Railway is planning to employ artificial intelligence and data analytics with the aim to improve operational efficiency. 

Read on to find out more about how Indian Railways will be using AI and data analytics right here!

Indian Railways To Appoint CTOs To Track New And Upcoming Technology To Use It For Data Analysis

As per reports, the Railway Board has decided to appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in every zone of Indian Railways. The CTO will be responsible for keeping a track of all the emerging technologies in AI and analytics. Also, the Chairman of the Railway Board, V K Yadav has said that the CTO will be working on using the same in the rail system. 

As per Yadav, the Indian Railways has train operations-related data, passenger-related data, freight data, and even asset-related data. And now, with the help of AI and data analytics, the Indian Railways will be analyzing all this data and using it for Indian Railways’ Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the introduction of new train services, and predictive asset maintenance as well.

The national transporter has collaborated with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and will be analyzing the data that is generated by Indian Railways. 

Yadav has also said that a Centre for Excellence will also be set up by the Indian Railways anytime in the next three months.

Here, the role of Hyderabad’s ISB will be to work and develop an introductory capacity building program and also to prepare a report on AI’s industrial practices on railway transport and benchmarking. ISB will also be working on a report to set up the Centre of Excellence and an advanced capacity building program.

Officials To Be Trained At IITs, IIMs, ISB, IIIT in AI and Data Analytics

The Indian Railways has started a training program of 88 officials for this over the last two months. This training will be given to identified officials in every zone and division.

The report also states that training modules will include data science, big data analytics, cloud computing, AI using reinforcement learning as well as AI for autonomous vehicles.

Along with the CTO in zonal headquarters, Indian Railways will be planning to appoint an assistant chief technology officer (ACTO) in the divisions that report directly to the GM and DRMs respectively.

Six to ten officers in divisions and around 20 officers in zonal headquarters will be selected for training in data analytics. These officers will be trained formally in institutes like IITs, IIMs, ISB, IIIT in AI and data analytics. There are also talks about the development of data sharing protocols with CRIS, RailTel and others.