The Tale of the Inaugural Computer Ticket
Every major project in India is inaugurated with great fanfare. Computerisation of Passenger Reservations on Indian Railways, was indeed one of the flagship projects of the Nation which promised to catalyse India’s rapid march towards the 21st century. Accordingly, the plan for a grand inauguration had been occupying the minds of the Railwaymen at Calcutta (as Kolkata was called at the time) during the second quarter of 1987.
But alas! Due to the busy schedule of the Minister of State for Railways, computerised reservation commenced in the city without any formal function. Needless to say, the members of the project team were greatly disappointed.
At long last however, information came that the Minister would formally inaugurate the Calcutta project on 7th November, 1987. Accordingly, elaborate arrangements were made to hold the ceremony at the newly renovated Railway Reservation Office at New Koilaghat Building in the city’s central business district. Special care was taken to ensure that there is no failure. Foolproof communication links were provided to the counters from the Central Processing Unit located on the second floor of the building.
But at the last moment Railway officials at Calcutta were informed that the Minister, due to shortage of time, would like to inaugurate the system at Howrah Railway Station across the river Hooghly and proceed to New Delhi from there by the Rajdhani Express, immediately thereafter!
The project team of the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) was struck by lightning! At that point of time, there was no facility for data connectivity between Calcutta and Howrah. Even the Train Charts were being printed at the Computer Centre at New Koilaghat and were despatched to the station by couriers every day before the departure of each train. The inauguration venue selected was the site of the new Station Building, still under construction and without a roof. Moreover, since an 18th century structure had been detected while laying the foundation of the new station complex, the construction work had to be temporarily stopped under Court orders. In fact, the site was a mound of rubble, reminiscent of London after the Blitz, during World War II.
While temporary reservation counters for the inauguration got built at breakneck speed, the greatest hurdle was to provide data communication across the river between the railways’ data centre at New Koilaghat and its Divisional office at Howrah. The antennae being imported for digital communication in PRS were yet to arrive from overseas; and there were no spare equipments with the Railway engineers. For the communication team of PRS, this was a mighty challenge; but overcome they did, with great innovative spirit and aplomb!
One of the railway’s telecommunication engineers procured a dish-shaped aluminium bowl from the local market and re-engineered it to act as a microwave receiver. This dish was fixed on the roof of the Howrah Railway Divisional office and after strenuous efforts, unbelievable as it may seem, effective line-of-site data transmission was successfully established through this rudimentary device. The entire project staff waited with bated breath during the function, when, with halting beeps, the computer terminal at Howrah station generated the ticket for the Minister’s journey to New Delhi. Indeed, this amazing, technical innovation by the Railway engineers saved the day; a humble beginning indeed for a network which finally has evolved as the largest commercial computer application of the globe!
Unfortunately, the Hon’ble Minister would never come to know that he had purchased his ticket by Rajdhani Express that day with the aid of a petty aluminium bowl costing less than ten rupees!
The inaugural ticket was bequeathed to me by Late Madhavrao Scindia, autographed by him. I had the pleasure of presenting it to Eastern Railway for preservation in the Zonal Heritage Gallery at Fairlie Place, Kolkata in April 2016, where it is now displayed.
SANJOY MOOKERJEE