E-Paper
NCR initiative to monitor, resolve passenger woes quickly
The North Central Railway has created war rooms in each division to address passenger complaints received through the RailMadad portal. The initiative has resulted in faster resolution of grievances, with the first response time standing at just 12 minutes in October 2023.
In a bid to improve passenger satisfaction, the North Central Railway (NCR) under the guidance of its general manager Satish Kumar and under the leadership of principal chief commercial manager Prabhat Ranjan has come up with a unique initiative to address passenger grievances in a quick timeframe.
War rooms have been created in each division to cater to the passenger complaints being received on RailMadad portal that allows train passengers to lodge complaints through mobile app and web platform and enables them to check real-time feedback on the status of redressal of their complaints.
Indian Railway as a part of its digital initiatives had launched the completely digitised complaint management system in the form of RailMadad–an app to expedite and streamline passenger grievance redressal.
“It (RailMadad) relays real time feedback to passengers on the status of redressal of their complaints: The passenger gets an instant ID through an SMS on registration of complaint followed by a customized SMS communicating the action taken thereon by railways,” said chief public relations officer (CPRO) of NCR Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay.
“These war rooms created at divisional offices usually receive passenger complaints related to security, punctuality, water needs, medical help, electrical issues, cleanliness, parcel issues, ticketing, passenger amenities and other miscellaneous issues,” he said.
All these complaints are related to either one or more departments and these war rooms have representatives from all the departments concerned, including RPF, engineering, electrical, commercial, mechanical, operating and commercial at one place. “This makes the complaints handling easy and reduces any issue of inter-departmental hassles,” he added.
The unique first-of-its-kind initiative of bringing all concerned under one roof has resulted in faster resolving of grievances and providing solution to customers on real time basis. NCR as a zone was lagging behind in grievance handling at 15th rank in June this year prior to setting up of these war rooms. Since then, it has become a frontrunner in just four months and reached fifth spot in October 2023, NCR officials said.
“It is expected to go further up with every passing month. Now, not only the almost 100% of complaints received through RailMadad are being promptly dealt but the first response time (FRT) during October 2023 stood at as low as 12 minutes which was 58 minutes in June 2023,” the CPRO said.
“FRT is an indicator of efficiency in handling medical and security assistance during emergencies. The average pendency time remained 21 minutes against Indian railways average of 48 minutes and while the average disposal time has been only 33 minutes against Indian railways average of 2.30 hrs and it’s a commendable improvement over the average disposal time of 1.37 hrs as in June 2023,” he said.
A total of 15,241 complaints were received in October 2023. Of them, 99.94% complaints have been closed with an overall satisfactory rating as per railway board guidelines. In NCR, these complaints are received through Rail Passenger Helpline 139, RailMadad website, social media forums, RailMadad app and the other means like SMS to 139, E-mail, CPGRAMS etc.
The war rooms are being monitored live at the top level and these are personally visited by officials, including surprise inspections, and senior officials, including principal chief commercial manager.
Recently one Apurv Singh travelling in train no 12310 Rajendranagar–Tejas Rajdhani in A2 coach on November 12 requested for a help and the NCR team at Prayagraj division war room swung into action and the desired help was provided at Kanpur central station. Apurv Singh thanked the team for swift action.
Another passenger Saurabh while travelling by train no 11107 lodged a complaint regarding unavailability of bed roll on his berth. His concern was resolved within 10 minutes with the active intervention of Jhansi division RailMadad war room.
