Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the country's largest steel producing company has become the first company in India to utilise the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) of Indian Railways for monitoring the movement of its incoming and outgoing rail freight traffic. The web enabled system has been developed and customized for SAIL by the Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), Ministry of Railways. The new system was formally launched by Shri V.K.Gulhati, Director (Technical), SAIL today and was put in operational use for all SAIL plants & units simultaneously for providing on-line information about incoming raw material wagon/trains starting from the loading points to destinations and movement of finished products from steel plants to stockyards/customers.
A step forward in logistics management, the system will improve synergy between the loading and receiving points by providing real time information to users. The system will provide information about the loading details of the entire incoming and outbound freight trains from/to SAIL's steel plants & units, their pipeline positions, freight payment details, wagon status/detention etc. This shall help SAIL plants for advance planning of rail borne transportation needs.
Shri R.B. Das, Group General Manager (FOIS) from CRIS, present on the occasion mentioned that the system has been exclusively designed for SAIL after a number of interactions with SAIL plants which will help in on-line tracking of inward & outward wagons/trains across the country.
SAIL has taken a number of initiatives for improving logistics and other operational efficiency for improving wagon turn-around for raw material as well as finished products. SAIL has also engaged M/s RITES for detailed study and preparation of feasibility report for up-gradation of its internal railway network for meeting the future requirements with modernization & expansion.
SAIL's growth plan, which envisages its hot metal production capacity rising to over 26 million tonnes by the year 2010 will see a quantum increase in rail traffic. SAIL's rail traffic is expected to grow to nearly 110 million tonnes per year by 2011 from the current level of 62 million tonnes per year. The information available through FOIS will enable SAIL to prepare itself efficiently for handling the growing traffic.
