Bansal promises 'paradigm shift in internet rail ticketing'

The Next Generation technology would make e-ticketing possible through mobile phones as also provide SMS alerts on reservation status

With more passengers preferring to book railway tickets online, Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said that by the end of this year Railways will introduce 'Next Generation e-ticketing system'.

The system will be able to support 7,200 net booking in a minute from the present 2,000 bookings. The new system will be able to support 120,000 simultaneous users at any point in time against the present capacity of 40,000 users.

This is not all, soon railway commuters on long-distance journey will be able to access internet on their smartphones and laptops, as the minister promised free Wi-Fi facility on several trains free-of charge.

Some of the initiatives under the new ticketing systems include allowing bookings through mobile phone, increasing e-ticketing hours, revamping the e-ticketing system to support, and to make the online reservation process smooth and hassle-free.

Besides, like airlines, railways will also soon start sending “SMS Alerts” to passengers providing updates on reservation status.

The Railways' website at irctc.co.in, though had made ticket booking efficient, it is often criticised for being slow. The site crashes often due overloading and huge online traffic that it attracts.
 
Bansal said “the Next Generation e-ticketing system which will bring about a paradigm shift in internet rail ticketing by significantly improving the end user experience in respect of ease of use, response time as well as capacity.”

The new system will also make use of advanced fraud control and security management tools thereby further improving fairness and transparency in disbursal of tickets.

For the convenience of the passengers, the Internet ticketing hours has been increased; Passengers can make online bookings from 12:30 am to 11:30 pm now. However, booking agents would be barred from booking tatkal tickets between 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

The railways is also making provision of announcement facility and electronic display boards in trains for disseminating information to on-board passengers about approaching stations, train running, arrival platform.

Aadhar for e-ticketing

The Indian Railways will soon link passenger tickets with Aadhaar cards to bring in transparency in booking.
 
“The Aadhaar database generated, can be extensively and efficiently used by railways not only to render more user friendly services such as booking of tickets, validation of genuine passengers with GPS enabled handheld gadgets in trains, but also to provide a better interface with its employees in regard to their salaries, pension and allowances,” Bansal added.

The railway is also bringing larger number of trains under Real Time Information System (RTIS), that will allow rail users to access information about delays and train running schedule through nominated websites and mobile phones.