Now, rly minister to track operations from his office at Rail Bhavan through a CRIS software

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal would soon be able to monitor the entire rail network, including movement of trains and earnings of the national transporter, live in his office through a software.

The system could also become available for the general public soon as the railways is mulling putting up such screens on its premises to promote transparency, officials said.

The software, 'eDrishti', was developed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and it will let Goyal directly track any information on just a click of mouse, a senior official said.

The software would give the minister a bird's eye view of freight and passenger earnings, freight loading and unloading, punctuality, major projects, grievances, live trains, station details, and much more, the official said.

Even the base kitchens of IRCTC, the catering arm of railways were connected with the software.

"As soon as minister clicks the IRCTC kitchen option on the dashbaord, the live video of the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) base kitchens will appear on the screen," the official said.

The move to link the kitchens was due to complaints being received by the railways regarding the quality of food, the official added.

The minister would also be able to see live the status of reserved and unreserved passengers travelling in the train.

Similarly, on opening the 'live trains' tab, the minister would be given information about the live train running status.

"On clicking on the tab Live Trains, a dashboard is displayed which will show various trains running currently along with other details i.e. the originating station, the destination station, the present station and its running status," the official said.