Indian Railways to adopt paperless system

All files of the Railway Ministry will be digitised as Indian Railways have decided to go paperless soon.

The Railway Board already started digitising all business processes and file work through the e-office platform system from November 1.

"We have already directed the general managers of all zones to adopt a digital mode of working,” V K Thripathi, Chairman Railway Board said here.

"This is mainly to make decision making faster and adopt transparency. Very few cases, physical files will be allowed," he said.

In future, only documents related to classified, department related enquiry cases, vigilance and some Parliamentary related files are permitted to be processed in physical forms. Rest should be processed through e-platform, said a circular issued by the Railway Ministry.

"The Government has been emphasising for switching over to paperless mode of working to reduce delays in decision making and improving the efficiency," said the Ministry.

The circular also said that A4 size white papers, green sheets and noting pages will be issued to branches, directorates and departments only as an exception cases and only in limited numbers and that too with approval from the senior officers.

It was decided that all correspondence between the railway board and zonal offices will also be through e-office platforms only, the railway official said. The Centre has been aggressively pushing all the ministries to adopt an e-filing system for faster decision making.