Indian Railways to implement ERP solution in next few months, says Suresh Prabhu

The Indian Railways will move to technology-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in the next few months, railways minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday. 

"It is a great opportunity for India to improve productivity through technology. ERP could be a game changer. Implementation of ERP in railways will be world's biggest ERP. We will start implementing it in the next few months," Prabhu said at ICAl's sustainable infrastructure event in the Capital. 

In the next course of few years, railways will completely move towards e-tendering process to eliminate corruption, he said. 

To make railways clean and transparent, the ministry is moving towards e-tendering process where every tender will have to go through electronic channel only. Besides, the ministry is in the process of bringing in reforms in terms of accounting and a regulatory framework will be put in place. The proposed regulatory framework is to be tasked with fixing fares, the minister said. 

The proposed regulatory authority will play a crucial role in deciding rail tariffs while the Railway Infrastructure Development Fund will be used in remunerative projects that have scope for good returns in shorter period, he said.

To expand railway infrastructure and increase capacity, the ministry has undertaken doubling of rail lines measuring 12,500 kilometres in the last two-and-a-half years, Prabhu said. The Railways has planned a medium-term capital investment plan of Rs 8.56 lakh crore for the next five years.