Indian Railways - Opportunity Unfolding

Many say that the best way to experience India is to travel through India on Indian Railways. Traveling in Indian Railways can be an experience that can range from exciting to irritating, but never boring. Even just sitting in the railway station watching people and trains can be entertaining, I used to do that in my college days when I had to travel home in late night trains. Pun aside, Indian Railways is far from being modern. The ticketing systems, the railway stations, the platforms, the train engines and bogies are far behind what is there in Europe and other countries.

Is the Indian Railways finally moving? Below are few interesting articles:

• Reliance, GMR, GVK may bid for Delhi railway station
• Indian Railways targets APIs with OTAs by mid-2008
• Travel Roundup: Redbus-Multilingual, MMT, Cleartrip - Railway; Travelguru-Affiliate
• Railway Platform Tickets Now an SMS Away
• IRCTC Mobile Booking
• Railway Ticketing On Mobile
  

IRCTC today processes 1 million transactions every month worth rupees 100 crores through its e-commerce website.

If Indian Railways wakes up to modernize itself, whether by itself or through tie ups with private firms, it would make a huge difference to the consumers. It would also be a good commercial opportunity and win-win for everybody if this happens with appropriate co-operation from all parties. By the way, the picture in this article is the dream. Hope to see it in reality soon.