Indian Railway to Introduce Biometric Attendance for Locopilots and Guards in Trains

Indian Railway to start biometric sign on and sign off for thousands of locopilots and guards

India: Indian Railway recently announced to launch biometric attendance system for its employees. The technological shift is expected to cover 100 thousand of locopilots and over 25,000 guards, to efficiently manage the crew.

The railways business plan for 2017-18 suggested that Indian railways will be migrating towards biometric attendance to bring in more accuracy and transparency of crew availability. According to government estimates, 15 percent of the crew is covered under biometric sign on and sign off, which would be further extended to cover nearly 50 percent of the railway crew by 2018. 

The biometric facility will enable Ministry of Railways to ensure that locopilots attend mandatory 10 hours of duty, as there were complaints regarding tampering of attendance records earlier. Under the new biometric attendance, the crew will punch in before joining the duty and sign off at the end of duty. The biometric attendance system will have a central database so that employee can mark the attendance across any station in the country.

TechSci Research depicts that adaptation of biometric in Indian railways will pave way for biometric market in future as it will provide accuracy and availability of the locopilots and guards to avoid railway mishap. The implementation of biometric in all central government offices and other ministries, to keep track of employees working hours, will bring in more transparency and efficiency in the system. 

According to recent report published by TechSci Research “India Biometrics Market By Type By End Use Sector, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2021”, the country’s biometrics market is projected to grow at a CAGR over 31% during 2016 - 2021. In 2015, the country’s southern region held the largest share in India biometric market, owing to rising industrialization and presence of a large number of leading private sector companies in the region. Government, banking & finance, energy & power, and consumer electronics are the key end user segments where deployment of biometric systems is witnessing an increase, and this trend is expected to continue over the next five years.