The Hindu Business Line : Booking of tickets through mobile phone soon

Extended services
Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters to be increased from 3,000 to 15,000
Automatic ticket vending machines to go up from 250 to 6,000
Facility of e-tickets to be extended to wait-listed passengers also

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Feb. 26 Passengers may soon be able to book rail tickets though mobile phones, with the Railways looking into the possibility of issuing reserved and unreserved rail tickets though an SMS.

The Railway Budget has also outlined an aggressive five-year ‘Vision for IT’ that focuses on IT applications in areas of freight and passenger services management and general management, and application of modern technologies like GIS, GPS, and RFID.

The IT-thrust — linking call centres with control office and National Train Enquiry System on an on-line basis, installation of on-line coach indication display board, and online train arrival departure information board — is expected to immensely benefit IT companies eyeing the domestic market.

The Railways nationwide communication infrastructure would provide the foundation of a common delivery network and platform, enabling customers to have accurate, fast and online access to information.

It is expected to result in a superior experience with improvements in overall efficiency, safety of railway operations, ease of transactions and value-added services like infotainment, on-board television and knowledge kiosks with internet facilities.

E-ticket surge

A multi-pronged strategy is being adopted to use IT as a lever to permanently terminate long queues at ticket counters within two years.

Accordingly, the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters would be increased to 15,000 from 3,000, while the automatic ticket vending machines would go up to 6,000 from 250.

In addition, compared to the current practice of issuing e-tickets against confirmed reservation, the facility of e-tickets would be extended to wait-listed passengers also. With this, the number of passengers travelling on e-tickets is expected to surge from one lakh to three lakh in the next one year.

IT opportunities

“Satyam is in talks with the Indian Railways for three to four IT outsourcing deals worth Rs 1,000-2,000 crore. The deals include those for asset management services, ERP, RFID, commercial portals amongst others,” Mr Ranjan Tayal, Head (India), Satyam, said.

When contacted, Mr S. Venkatramani, Vice-President and Head, India Geography at TCS, lauded the integrated IT approach to Rail management.

“Also, the anytime, anywhere ticketing through mobile devices would require a tremendous ecosystem, integration with reservation system, payment gateways etc. This is a huge area for us,” he said.

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