Title - Railways to introduce mobile ticket counters soon

Bangaloreans have seen many mobile utilities, including mobile library, mobile bill payment kiosks, mobile health screening facilities, mobile telephone directory distribution and mobile ATM.To add to this list, the Bangalore Division of the South Western Railway (SWR) is planning to introduce mobile ticket issuing counters soon. Advance reservation of tickets could be made through these counters, as done in counters at railway stations and shopping complexes.“The move is part of a nation-wide scheme launched by the Indian Railways, particularly for metro cities. It aims at providing reservation facility to people who stay far away from PRS (Passenger Reservation System) counters of the Railways,” said a senior official.To start with, SWR will hire two vehicles for the purpose. Each vehicle will have two counters each to issue tickets. Depending upon the response from the public, the authorities will plan further expansion, the officer said. As far as the location of these counters is concerned, the officer said that no specific route has been worked out as yet. However, these vehicles will ply in areas which are far away from the PRS counters. They will be stationed in a particular location for a specified period so that people in the vicinity may book their tickets, the official said.

He said that the tendering process for procuring the vehicle is on. Meanwhile, the Railways is conducting trials on the availability of Internet service in different parts of the city, where these vehicles will be stationed. “We have to test the Internet service coverage as some areas turn to be black spots for some service provider,” the official said. Internet connectivity is crucial for reservation counters as they work on the platform designed and hosted by the Centre for Railway Information System.

16 centres

At present, SWR operates 16 PRS centres across the city, including at the City, Yeshwantpur, Cantonment, Malleswaram, Bangalore East, Kengeri, Krishnarajapuram and Banaswadi railway stations, and at Indiranagar, Banashankari, Jayanagar 4{+t}{+h}Block, Vijayanagar, K.R. Market, M.G. Road, Electronic City, MEG Centre and the Vidhana Soudha. As many as 45 counters function in these locations for an average of 90 shifts a day.

An average of 11,600 tickets is issued in these counters covering about 17,000 passengers every day. About Rs. 51 lakh revenue is generated through these counters.