CRIS & DIBD joins hands to make Indian Railways digital services more accessible across Indian Languages.

May11, 2025

New Delhi: A new partnership between Digital India Bhashini Division (DIBD) and the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is set to make Indian Railways’ digital services more accessible across Indian languages. The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to co-develop and roll out multilingual AI-based solutions on public-facing railway platforms.

The MoU, signed in New Delhi by BHASHINI CEO Amitabh Nag and CRIS Managing Director GVL Satya Kumar, outlines a plan to integrate BHASHINI’s full suite of language technologies into key CRIS-managed systems like the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) and RailMadad. This includes Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Text Translation, Text-to-Speech (TTS), and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), aimed at making railway services usable in 22 Indian languages.

“This collaboration will transform how millions of passengers engage with railway services daily. Through BHASHINI’s AI capabilities, we are ensuring that language is no longer a barrier to accessing vital public services,” said Nag. Kumar added, “CRIS is proud to partner with BHASHINI to implement inclusive, AI-powered solutions across our digital platforms. This will enhance accessibility, transparency, and efficiency in our passenger-facing services.”

The collaboration will also focus on multilingual support for over-the-counter railway enquiries, AI-powered interfaces across mobile apps, websites, kiosks and call centres, and enabling real-time speech-based interactions. Services will be deployed through both cloud and on-premise infrastructure. A series of technical workshops and pilot deployments are expected to begin soon.

The move is part of the broader push under the Digital India initiative to bridge the language divide in public digital infrastructure.