RailEnquiry

With the festive season around, the Railways has started projects to check two menaces - touting and also cheating by booking clerks. A digital display information system (DDIS) will check frauds committed by clerks, while a CCTV-enabled system at reservation counters will keep tabs on touts. "We have introduced DDIS at about 30-40 unreserved ticket counters on the Ajmeri Gate side of the New Delhi railway station. This will benefit about 1 lakh passengers buying unreserved tickets every day," said Sudhir Garg, additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) of Northern Railway (Delhi). Screens installed at counters will specifically display the number of passenger(s) for whom the ticket(s) is bought, total fare and destination. "We have been getting complaints that booking clerks ask for inflated ticket prices by quoting wrong distances, destinations and numbers of passengers. Now DDIS will check this," said Gerg. "Even if the passenger is illiterate and he cannot rely on the booking clerk, others in the queue can convey to him the exact information being displayed ," said the ADRM. "We will extend the service to all stations under the Delhi division. For reserved tickets, we have already been displaying some information at counters," he said. The Northern Railway has also planned relaying real-time feed from booking counters to check touts. The feed -also available on android phones -can be accessed by railway officials from any location. A pilot project has already been launched in Moradabad. Soon it will be extended to other stations, including Delhi. "This system will be helpful in both surveillance and investigation. It has a data storage capacity of more than 120 days, which can be seen live from anywhere in the world on Internet," said Manoj Shamra, senior division commercial manager (Moradabad).