In a further push to cashless transactions, the Railways will soon allow passengers to buy unreserved tickets using e-wallets such as Paytm and MobiKwik. This will initially be allowed in certain sections.
To buy unreserved tickets through e-wallets, a passenger will have to use the Railways’ paperless ticketing app — UTS on mobile — which is front-ended by IRCTC, a Railway subsidiary that handles e-ticketing, catering and tourism, according to sources.
At present, payment wallets such as Paytm and MobiKwik can be used for buying only reserved tickets. Being pricier, reserved tickets are booked by only 7 per cent of the total rail passengers. People travelling on unreserved tickets account for 93 per cent of the total rail passengers.
The Railways is also working on making tickets available through UPI.
As of now, for booking paperless tickets in the unreserved segment by using the cashless mechanism, passengers have to put in money in the R-wallet or the Railway’s rolling wallet through Internet banking or debit cards. This system, called ‘UTS on Mobile’ was introduced last year in four sections -- Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. At present, about 52,000 passengers travel daily by booking unreserved tickets via this app.
The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) is now integrating Paytm and MobiKwik, allowing a section of passengers to make payments for unreserved tickets using the Railways app. IRCTC is also in talks with SBI Buddy and Freecharge for the same, it is learnt.
About two crore passengers travel everyday in trains without an assured reserved seat.
The unreserved passenger segment largely consists of the economically lower class, the lower middle class and wait-listed middle and upper classes. Many of them use season tickets — monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly.
In Mumbai, the Railways has allowed passengers to buy season tickets using the I-ticket mode through IRCTC, wherein a paper season ticket is couriered to their homes after they make an online payment. This was not very popular, but following demonetisation, the number of such tickets has gone up to 120-130 as of January 2, from 56 earlier.
The Railways has also installed 375 point of sale or PoS machines in its busiest counters, out of a total of 12,000-13,000 counters in 6,000 locations. To further ease queues, people are being allowed to book tickets through the UTS App for relatives and take print-outs from automatic ticket vending machines. At present, 2,300-2,400 automatic ticket vending machines have been installed.
All the train tickets are booked through IRCTC, which pays to CRIS, as there are Controller of General Account norms that prevent the Railways from delivering a service before accepting payment.
The entire project — UTS on mobile or paperless tickets — has been implemented by CRIS, a society, for ₹5 crore in Secunderabad, Kolkata, and New Delhi- Palwal area, apart from Mumbai and Chennai.