WESTERN RAILWAY to equip TCs with Hand-held Devices for long distance trains in 3 months

WESTERN RAILWAY to equip TCs with Hand-held Devices for long distance trains in 3 months

Mumbai: Western Railway is to bring in hand-held devices for long distance trains within the next three months in the hope that ticket collectors (TCs) will no longer take bribes and allot berths to passengers far back on the waiting list instead of those supposed to be allotted the same berths as per the list when passengers cancel or don’t turn up.

With this, the WR will be one of the first railways to initiate hand-held devices to directly connect with the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and do away with the old system of long paper lists carried by TCs who then tick if passengers have occupied their seats and allot empty seats to waitlisted passengers who board the train in the hope they will get seats in the event of cancellations.

“One of the main reasons behind bringing in hand-held devices is reducing corruption that occurs on passenger trains by TCs who give vacant or cancelled berths to the highest bidder. We will do away with this completely as officials under whose jurisdiction the trains come will also have information in front of them and will know if TCs are allotting berths to people out of turn,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

Another reason for bringing in hand-held devices is convenience as many a times, the list of passengers stuck to the train tends to get washed away during monsoons and passengers who might be catching the train from somewhere in the middle of the journey have to run to the station master or TC, leading to chaos as the train doesn’t stop for more than five to 10 minutes on most stations, “If a train has left from Bombay Central to Ahmedabad, many times by the time the train reaches Dahanu or even before, the list is washed away since we all know how intense the Indian monsoon can be,” the official added.

The hand-held devices are said to be revolutionary in the ticketing system of passenger trains on Indian Railways and are being billed as a big step in keeping mass transport up-to-speed with the latest technology.