Coal India Ltd inks pact with CRIS

The first-of-its-kind data sharing offers Coal India Ltd (CIL) a bouquet of benefits that help it in rationalising the entire coal supply matrix through rail mode

New Delhi: State-owned Coal India on Monday said it has signed a pact with the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), a wing under the railways ministry, for monitoring the movement of rakes laden with fossil fuel and coal despatch activity.

The first-of-its-kind data sharing offers Coal India Ltd (CIL) a bouquet of benefits that help it in rationalising the entire coal supply matrix through rail mode, according to the company. It will provide precise details of loading, weighment and unloading along with turnaround time of rakes, it added.

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Primarily, it is a handshake of freight operation information between the networks of CIL and CRIS regarding Coal India’s rail movement of coal, the company said, adding that it also includes other logistics details. “For faster and customised automated access to data, through Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) of Indian Railways, which would help Coal India …monitor movement of coal laden rakes and coal despatch activity, the company on Monday entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Centre for Railway Information Systems,” the PSU said in a statement.

The information helps minimise the instances of under loading and overloading of rakes and untangles the knots benefitting CIL, railways and the consumers, it said. Importantly, the resultant relevant information eases the way for faster billing and bill monitoring process replacing the manual entry of railway receipts with instantaneous online transfer.

Another high point is the data sets shared by CRIS provide CIL information on sanctioned coal and rake programmes, rake demand, rake detention and diversion details which helps the coal companies plan their supplies, the company said.