Railways earn Rs 3,909 crore from e-ticketing

Indian Railways has added nearly 4,000 crore in its coffers through e-ticketing till November 2008, which is nearly double the amount it made during last fiscal.

"The Railways earned Rs 3,909 crore from its e-ticketing scheme this year (till November 2008). The profit is expected to rise," a senior ministry official said.

The e-ticketing facility was launched by Railways in 2005. Under the scheme, passengers can book their tickets using internet by opting any of the two options -- e-ticket and i-ticket.

The profit made by Railways is more than double the amount it earned last year. In the financial year 2007-08, Railways earned Rs 1295.74 crore from the facility.

The ministry, apparently happy with the outcome of the scheme, wants to make it more user friendly to add more customers to its kitty but refrained from making any major modifications.

"The ministry as of now does not plan to modify the scheme since it is yielding expected results. But we keep introducing user friendly systems in e-ticketing software system to make our services more customer-friendly," the official said.

According to officials, using e-ticket facility, passengers can book berths in trains online and get instant print out of electronic reservation ticket. While in case of i-ticket, they (passengers) can only book accommodation using internet and the tickets gets delivered to their home.

However, the i-ticket facility is available at selected locations only. Railways take two to three days to deliver tickets depending on the city, official said.