Title - Outsourced ticket counters go out of service

Amritsar:A large number of city residents are peeved at the closure of current ticket windows for the past many months in the city. They have to stand in long queues at the railway station for the same.The authorised current railway ticket windows, outsourced to private individuals by the Railways, had been operational in different parts of the city for the past many years. These ticket centres were extremely popular for easy availability of tickets and their locations on main roads.These current ticket window centres were opened up at Katra Bhai Sant Singh Chowk inside the walled city, outside Durgiana Temple, Puttalighar Chowk and at the Railway link road.Niranjan Singh, a resident of Dashmesh Nagar, said current ticket window centre at Puttalighar was a boon for the city residents on the western side. They escaped standing in long serpentine queues at the railway station and saved precious time and managed to catch the train on time.Surjit Singh of Katra Karam Singh area recalled, “One fine day he had to catch a train to Ludhiana in the morning but found the ticket centre at Katra Bhai Sant Singh Chowk closed. A little before the departure of train he reached the current ticket window booking area at the railway station. To my utter surprise I found all long queues and got the ticket after an hour.” Surjit saved the day by catching the next train to reach his destination.

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Upjeet Singh, stationed at Ferozepur division of the Northern Railway, said advertisement to hire authorised agents called Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewak (JTBS) had been publicised. He said numerous interested persons had applied for the same. He said technical scrutiny of these applications was underway and a committee of the Railways would monitor and study their cases to select the deserving ones. The process would be finished and the ticket windows would be operational within a month and a half, he added.

JTBS is the person who sells unreserved railway tickets through computerised unreserved ticketing system (UTM). The objective of the JTBS is to shorten the long queues at ticket counters on the railway stations and to help passengers in getting tickets comfortably at a nearby place.

Normally, JTBS is entitled to charge Re 1 per ticket as commission from the passengers.