INFRA DIG
This is a remarkable story and the fact it is being told is courtesy Sanjoy Mookerjee, who retired from Indian Railways (IR) as financial commissioner. If we travel by railways and even by air, we are familiar with PNR (passenger name record). PNRs have 10 digits today. The last seven digits are random. However, the first three have significance. The first digit is an indication of the station (more accurately, zone) from which the journey starts, while the next two digits identify the passenger reservation system (PRS) through which booking was done. This is thanks to computerisation. What’s special about PNR number 610040 and who was it issued to? This is beyond the ken of even ~7 crore respondents on Kaun Banega Crorepati. This is the first computerprinted ticket ever on IR and it was issued to Madhavrao Scindia on November 11, 1987. More accurately, it is the oldest computer-printed ticket that has been preserved. The headquarters of Eastern Railway (ER) is in Fairlie Place and there is a Heritage Gallery there. Unlike ER Museums in Howrah or Bolpur (Gitanjali Rail Museum), I don’t think too many nonIR people visit the Heritage Gallery. That’s where the Scindia ticket is now. It was owned by Mookerjee and has now been donated to the Gallery.
Scindia was railway minister from October 22, 1986, to December 1, 1989. Read his Railway Budget speeches of February 25, 1987, February 24, 1988, and February 23, 1989, to realise how novel computerised reservation system (CRS) was then. As far as I understand, computerised ticketing and reservation was first introduced in New Delhi in 1986 (with a pilot in 1985), followed in 1987 by Mumbai and stand-alone systems in Chennai and Kolkata. The February 1987 speech said, “As I have earlier stated in the House, passenger reservations in the entire Delhi area, that is, Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin, along with four outlying terminals in the city, will be on by the end of March 1987. Similar systems have been planned in Bombay and Calcutta where the first phase will be completed by December 1987. In 1987-88, work will commence on five more projects at Madras, Bangalore, Secunderabad, Bhopal and Lucknow.” The February 1989 speech added, “Sir, the computerised passenger reservation system has met with very favourable passenger response. What is pertinent to note is that the extremely complex software is a wholly indigenous effort.” That’s the reason I think the Fairlie Place ticket is the oldest computer-printed ticket that has been preserved. It can’t be the oldest. There must have been earlier ones from Delhi and even Mumbai, now lost. The Fairlie Place ticket is on 101 UP, 1 AC, from Howrah to New Delhi. As you will have guessed, this was Howrah Rajdhani via Dankuni, Dhanbad and Mirzapur. I doubt Scindia gave the passenger details himself. Someone from IR must have plugged them in. The ticket says M, 44. In 1987, the age should have been 42.
Scindia naturally knew about indigenisation. He probably never knew about the remarkable jugaad behind that November 1987 ticket. PRS and CRS started. In Kolkata, ER and South Eastern Railway (SER) were ready. This was end-1987. The minister was going to inaugurate the project and arrangements were made at ER’s New Koilaghat building, where there was a new reservation office. But then, as now, the best laid plans of ministers and men “gang aft a-gley”. The minister had limited time. Instead of New Koilaghat, he wished to inaugurate the project from Howrah Station and take the Rajdhani to Delhi. But there was a hitch. There was no data connectivity between New Koilaghat and Howrah Station. Computerised tickets were printed in Kolkata. Computerised charts were printed in Kolkata and ferried to Howrah. Renovation was underway, but the new Howrah Station building wasn’t ready. In a desperate hurry, temporary reservation counters were constructed for the inauguration. But you still needed data connectivity. Eventually, there would be imported antennae. However, those had merely been ordered, they hadn’t arrived.
An engineer used jugaad and it is a pity Mookerjee doesn’t mention the engineer’s name. This engineer went to the neighbouring market and bought an aluminium gamla vaguely in the shape of a dish. In Delhi, a gamla will usually be taken to mean a flowerpot. In Howrah/Kolkata, it usually means a mixing bowl used in the kitchen. At that time, this aluminium gamla cost less than ~10, I have no idea how expensive the imported antennae were. Wonder of wonders, the jugaadworked and at least for that limited purpose, data could be transferred from New Koilaghat to Howrah Station. That is how Scindia’s ticket was printed. I have not found this anecdote mentioned in any history of PRS/CRS. By the way, no doubt because of opposition computerisation faced, IR produced a Hindi documentary on the benefits of computerisation. This must have been done a bit later, perhaps in 1990s, after introduction of Countrywide Network of Computerised Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing (CONCERT). Howrah Station (the old building) was officially inaugurated on December 1, 1905, and celebrated 100 years in 2005. As most ~7-crore KBC respondents will know, the architect was Halsey Ricardo (1854-1928). It’s odd that Ricardo wrote a lot on architecture, but the only major buildings he designed were Howrah Station and Debenham House.