Title - Travel easy with ticket vending machines

The Northern Railway has setup 73 automatic ticket vending machines in 30 railway stations in the Capital to provide relief to the overwhelming rush of passengers during the holiday season.The machines will be operated through smart cards, using which passengers will be able to draw their own railway tickets.Railway officials said, limited units have already been installed at Delhi's major railway stations such as New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Old Delhi, Anand Vihar, Sarai Rohilla, Gurgaon, Sahibabad and Shahadra. Assessing the favourable response, the officials have decided to implement the programme on a larger scale to minimise the chaos at the booking centres.The units will be unmanned. Tickets for travel and platform tickets will be issued after a passenger punches his smart card and opts for the desired choice.Like the smart cards that are issued by DMRC for travelling in the Delhi Metro, ATVM smart cards will have a mandatory security deposit of Rs.20, top-ups (in multiples of Rs.50) with an upper limit of Rs.1000 and a 5 per cent concession for passengers using the smart cards. Validity of smart cards will be that of one year from the date of the last top-up.