The Railways on Saturday launched a new mobile ticket booking application (app) for commuters of suburban local trains, which aims to cut down their time at booking windows.
The mobile ticketing system was inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at Dadar station in Central Mumbai. "The idea is to minimise queues at booking windows. Each minute of railway commuters in Mumbai is precious and they should not be wasting their time at ticket windows," he said.
Under the system, commuters have to download the mobile application 'UTS', developed by Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), sign up and enter details like their mobile number, name, city etc. following which an 'R-wallet' will be created with zero balance. "At present, recharging of R-wallet is available across booking windows only. Soon recharge can be done online at sonmobile.indianrail.gov.in," the minister said.
The commuters have to login with their mobile number and password while booking tickets.
"They have to go to ATVM (automatic ticket vending machine) at the railway station from they want to start their journey, and take a print out of ticket. The facility is presently available at Dadar and would soon be extended to CST, Kurla, Thane and Kalyan stations soon," he said. Prabhu also inaugurated the Parcel Management System on Western Railway at Mumbai Central station, which is aimed at reducing human errors that generally associated with manual processing.
"The system is a computerised application, incorporating online transaction processing of commercial processes which are involved in parcel and luggage segments. "The customer can track his parcel through the system (which will be) available on railway website. This system will help reduction in human errors, claims and also has potential for revenue generation due to improvement in service," Prabhu said. The endeavour of railways is to provide facilities to commuters and its consumers as well, he added.
