Development of a robust feedback

mechanism for onboard passenger

amenities in Indian Railways to
improve passenger satisfaction and
service standards.

Prepared
By
Mohit Rastogi
Candidate for MBA – Class of 2012
Vinod Gupta School of Management
IIT Kharagpur

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 Acknowledgement
I do like to acknowledge the contribution and support provided by many people
without which I would have not been able to come up with this paper.

First of all, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Prithwis Mukerjee, Professor, Vinod
Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur to provide me the motivation and
opportunity to think beyond the regular course work and challenge the boundaries of
my own comfort zone.

I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues in MBA program, Col. GSP Raju and
Col. Girijesh Pandey for their constructive and critical feedback on the idea. They
were critical in thir feedback about the idea which helped me to improve upon the
basic concept and think rationally and remove anomalies.

I would also like to thank the unknown railway employee who came to get my
feedback on a form on my journey from Delhi to IIT Kharagpur.

The lastly I thank the my parents and IIT to provide me the services and facilities
needed to think rationally and constant motivation through the environment and
competitive atmosphere.

Regards,

Mohit Rastogi

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Abstract:
In this era of intense competition and organizations spending a major portion of their
revenues on studying consumer behaviour and taking steps to increase customer
satisfaction, it becomes imperative for Public Sector organizations like Indian
railways to introspect and take steps in such direction. Indian railways is focussing
on core competencies and outsourcing most of the allied services like catering,
cleaning and things like that, there is an emerging need to have an effective
feedback system to address the issue of negligence and most importantly to place
an effective quality control where citizens of India can play a significant role. The
paper focuses on the development of such a system, through integration of existing
technologies and the methodology as to how the resulting product can be used for
the improvement data collection, interpretation and effective way to have a control
mechanism which is robust in its design and would discourage corrupt practices and
increase in service standards.

The technology basically talks about the integration of an interactive module unit
connected to the intranet of railways and would be placed in every coach of trains.
The data collected in the unit would be transferred to a RDBMS system which can be
later mined to generate reports and take managerial actions.

Introduction:
India is a growing economy and aspires to become a superpower by 2020. There is
much which needs to be done in terms of improving the infrastructure and services.
Railways form an important part of national infrastructure and means of transport for
passengers and freight. Passenger comfort and quality of services of Railways have
always been in question and its difficult to track and monitor the services in long
distance trains and trains which are generally overloaded. A lot of taxpayer’s money
is spent in improving the services and expansion of railway network. Indian railway
from past many years has started outsourcing a lot of non- core service related
activities like cleaning, food services, pantry services in addition to travel agents and
authorized railway reservation counters. There are mechanisms to monitor the
services provided by contractors and it is done on a regular basis by the railway
officials. There are also mechanisms in place to get the feedback of passengers
through a written form which is done a random sampling basis. However, the
practice is not prevalent in all the routes and trains. The main objective of this paper
is to make the process of feedback more transparent and ensure accountability in
case of malfunctioning. The proposed strategy provides a comprehensive solution
for improving services, generating a database for comparison and quality
comparison in addition to empowering the travellers to take charge of national
development and put a stop on corrupt practices if any.

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It also aims towards the implementation of performance based payment to the
contractors to ensure high standards of quality and stop misuse of public money.

Background:
Currently Indian railways boast of well organized Public grievances redressal
machinery. Complaint books are kept with station masters, in waiting rooms and are
also available with guards in running trains. Passengers are free to take their
complaints to the additional divisional railway mangers at division level and
additional general manager at zonal level.

There are several promises made and money being spent on improving the services
and amenities for passengers. According to the budget presented by the Railway
Minister of India there are provisions of Rs 1302 crores to be spent for this purpose.
In addition to it the minister categorically also mentioned about the complaints about
the catering services and the revision of catering policy.

Also the minutes of meeting of IRCTC with the stakeholders held on 26 th March 2010
focussed on the fact that the passenger amenities in the trains are not as per highest
standards and need much improvement in food services and passenger amenities.
The rise in number of complaints has forced railways to take catering business away
from IRCTC resulting in a loss of revenues in the order of 400 crores per annum for
IRCTC. The decision however does not guarantee about improvement in services
and assumes that mere change in the service provider would improve the quality.

Although there are complaint registers and office bearers who are identified to
address passenger complaints but practically it becomes impossible for passengers
to go and meet the railway officials for small grievances and often they are
overlooked. The reason for such behaviour is mainly lack of time and non-user
friendly feedback system.

The use of internet has also not been very fruitful as internet access is not available
to a large population of travellers and also those who have access are either not
aware or lose interest about feedback after the journey has been completed.

The paper has its basis in developing a model of an effective and robust feedback
mechanism which functions like a check on service providers and ensures direct
accountability of erroneous persons and organizations.

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Figure 1.0 below depicts present feedback system in its most elementary form.

As depicted in the above picture, in the current system of feedback the management
decisions are not guided by the passenger input and are more influenced by political
environment and lobby of contractors. The output of the decisions also often gets
unrecorded and there is no robust mechanism to evaluate the implication of
decisions on the satisfaction of customers (In this case railway passengers). This
drawback of the system is also responsible for inefficiency and slow response to
problems.

We can see on the various online consumer forums that there are hundreds of
dissatisfied travellers who want to get their complaints heard and are willing to
contribute their substantial amount of time for writing to authorities, but in absence of
awareness and non-availability of user friendly feedback system many of the
complaints go unnoticed and system lives with inefficiency for years and years.

Proposed Framework:
The proposed solution to achieve total transparency in feedback mechanism and
ensuring accountability is based on the amalgamation of two highly effective tried
and tested technologies of RDBMS and electronic voting machines. The proposed
idea is to integrate the two technologies to record, transfer, and store and analyze
data to take informed and fast decisions.

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Onboard feature of the feedback system ensures that the information recorded is
first hand and true. The authenticity and location, where the service default has been
committed is equally important as the nature and level of default. The figure 2.0
shows an elementary concept of a data entering machine.

Indian Railway Service Feedback

System
Display showing
भारतीय रेल सेवा पितिकया पणाली
the selected
service
Speaker

Chosen service
Digital Display
पितिकया के िलए चुना

1 Active

2 Inactive

3 Service
Selection
4 panel
Service 1
5 Service 2

9
Service 3 Service 4
10

Figure 2.0

a) Recording of data:

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Data recording would be similar to the concept used in the electoral voting machines
in India manufactured by BEL. There are certain changes proposed in the interface
of the machine to suit the needs of railways and eliminate chances of fraud.

The only authorized persons to enter data into the system would be the passengers
travelling on genuine tickets in their respective class of coaches. Each passenger
travelling on a train would be issued a six digit unique no along with the ticket. In
case of more than one passengers travelling on a single PNR, each passenger
would be issued a separate six digit number. The number provided would be the
access code to enter data in the feedback machine installed in every coach. The
machine would be interactive and would ask for the feedback of passengers about
various services. Passengers can rate the services on a scale of 0 to 10 as per their
evaluation. The collected data would be synchronized with railway servers having
information about train running and personnel on duty. Data thus collected would be
directly transferred to the central locations and synchronized with the other relevant
data.

b)Storage of data:
The data storage is an integral and important part of the designed system which is
as far as now left at the discretion of Railways as per their requirement. The data
may find its place in RDBMS (relational database management system) where it
would be stored in a logical manner and minimize on storage space. The scope of
paper is limited to introduction of the feedback mechanism and its working so the
RDBMS concept has not been explained in detail here.

c) Data integration:
Data integration of the recorded data with the train running information and persons
on duty would give a holistic view on the service mishaps happened. The data would
also be integrated with the record of service providers and their credentials. Data
integration would be done on a real time basis and updated constantly. The
integration would help in rating the contractors and railway zones or divisions on the
basis of their performance on the feedback system. This would create a healthy
competition among them and would lead to overall improvement of services.

d)Data Mining and analysis:

Data thus collected through the feedback mechanism can be analysed qualitatively
and used to rate the service providers for quality. The data can also be used to keep
a check on non-performing employees of railway, who are negligent towards their
duties and at the same tie reward those who have shown commitment and high
performance.

The data would find its usefulness in allocation of resources towards development of
facilities pertaining to passenger amenities in and around stations which score low

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on passenger amenities. It would also be possible to track the routes which are not
serviced properly and need immediate attention. Data would be especially helpful in
creating performance based contracts which would enable and empower railways to
maintain high standards of quality.

Since the data is being stored in a RDBMS, it may also allow the general public to
see the data in real time through use of web based browsers and they can track the
actions being taken on their complaints via internet.

The figure 3.0 depicts the methodology in pictorial form with excellence at its core
objective.

Figure 3.0

Implementation:
Implementation of the system is daunting task and should be carried out in a phased
manner starting with long distance trains where passenger amenities are a major
issue. The implementation would mainly consist of following steps in the order of
their appearance. These steps are not exhaustive in nature and have many sub-
activities under each step.

a) Preparation of requirement document and design of system.

b) Feasibility of its integration with current data transfer systems.

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 c) Finalization of data servers and data capturing module manufacturers.

d) Identification of pilot routes.

e) Training of railway staff about the process and its implications.

f) Awareness campaign for the passengers.

g) Launch of facility.

Financial feasibility:
The costs incurred on procurement, installing and operating the machines can be
recovered through the penalty charges on the service providers and increased
revenues on account of increased customer satisfaction. The mechanism would also
highlight the inefficiencies within the system and further aid to cost reduction.

The motive behind this kind of a feedback system is to improve upon the services
and attract the passenger traffic which has shifted to air travel in search of comfort
and would have preferred to take trains if only they were more comfortable.

Limitations of the system:

The system has certain limitations in terms of technical operations and managerial
implications. The system requires power support to function properly and
uninterrupted network connection which would connect it to the central data storage
server. The system would be susceptible to virus attacks and chances of tampering
with the system cannot be ignored.

The lobby of railway contractors and employee union may oppose the move as it
involves levying penalty charges for inefficient service and identifying erring
employees. The database would be huge and costs can be enormous if not
managed correctly in a professional manner. The design of database structure
needs to be changed with growing needs of the passengers and services offered by
railways. The design of data capturing unit module can be a factor to limit the variety
and no of responses it can handle in a certain period of time.

Additional burden on the already subsidized passenger fares until the system starts
giving benefits in terms of reducing inefficiencies and improvement in services.

Summary:
The system talked about in the paper would revolutionize the railway industry as it
would bring transparency in the contract award mechanism and is in line with the
motive of Indian government to achieve more transparency through acts like RTI
( Right to Information).

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The feedback system would ensure highest standards of services and create
database for making right and informed decisions by the railway management. It
would also pave the way for competitive bidding process coupled with minimum
guaranteed quality and public evaluation.

The access code issued with tickets would ensure genuine feedback at the right time
which in turn would help in more focussed efforts for resource allocation and
corrective actions.

As railways is largest employer of world with more than 1.6 million employee
strength and more adding daily. It is the backbone of Indian transport industry and
Indian infrastructure as a whole. The model would ensure fair tracking of individual
mistakes in an environment of collective responsibility and on the other hand the
competitive spirit among the divisions and zones would increase the team spirit and
employee motivation in general.

The system if implemented successfully would empower the general public to make
sure that their money is being spent in an effective manner and they have a right to
make a change in the system if they are not satisfied with the services.

Way Forward:
The system once implemented can be a source of useful information for many
industries. The data thus captured can be later integrated with the UID (Unique
Identification Number) to identify and see the responses of frequent travellers. The
data can also be sold to insurance agencies and travel agencies who would like to
get in touch with such travellers.

The system once successful in passenger amenities can also be extended to include
onboard ticketing systems wherein passengers would be able to buy tickets for
onward journey while travelling. It can also be extended to include passenger
suggestions about the improvement in services however it may require a different
interface.

Government of India is on the path of privatization of many public sector enterprises

and the day may not be far off when it may realize the need to privatize some
sectors of railway and then the usefulness of such a system would be enhanced
enormously to keep a check on the quality of services and address public
grievances.

Ministry of railways has allocated a huge sum of money to improve the amenities for
passengers and is committed to develop a world class infrastructure in years to
come. With India aspiring to become a superpower and potential to become a major
tourist destination for the western world and the proposed system can have a major
role in improving the revenue generation through passenger services. Over the
period of time, with increasing salaries and high spending power, railways would

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eventually take off the subsidy on passenger travel. The passengers then would be
more educated and would demand value for their money. To achieve this objective
and keeping futuristic outlook of next 20-25 years the feedback system would prove
to be instrumental.

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References:
1. Rail budget speech by Honourable Minister of Railways, Government of India.

2. Minutes of meeting of IRCTC with stakeholders on 26th March 2010.

3. Information available in public domain on website of Directorate

of Public Grievances, Govt of India.

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