Curtain Raiser - Inauguration of Various Ticketing IT services on Central, Western and Northern railways

2015/10/6

07-10-2015

Curtain Raiser - Inauguration of Various Ticketing IT services on Central, Western and Northern railways

Central Railway Press Release

CURTAIN RAISER- INAUGURATION OF VARIOUS TICKETING IT SERVICES on CR, WR & NR

Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Govt. of India will inaugurate various IT Services o­n Central, Western and Northern Railways through video conferencing from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi on 9.10.2015. 

1. Paperless unreserved ticket for Mumbai Suburban Section on Central Railway,

2. Paperless Season Tickets o­n mobile phones on Central, Western & Northern Railway (New Delhi-Palwal Section).

3. Paperless Platform Tickets at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Mumbai, Dadar, Panvel, Thane and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus  on CR; Mumbai Central, Borivali, Andheri, Dadar, Vasai Road and Bandra o­n WR & New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin on NR.

4. Currency-cum-Coin-cum-Card operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines at  Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Mumbai, Dadar and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus o­n CR; Churchgate and Mumbai Central on WR

5. Train Enquiry Mobile Application on iOS platform

This is a part of  'Digital India' programme which is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

This new technology introduced by the Railways is a direction towards the concept of Paperless Unreserved Ticketing through Mobile phones. Under this technology,  user can download a mobile application ‘UTS o­n mobile’. This application takes away the inconvenience of having to wait in a queue in order to buy the ticket.  This would not o­nly save time, but also avoid the usage of paper for tickets, thus contributing in a big way to save environment. 

The ‘UTS on mobile’ application was earlier introduced in Mumbai for suburban journey tickets, but the ticket printout was still required. Now, taking a step ahead, the paperless ticket is being introduced. With this, the need to go to an ATVM to print the ticket is being done away with.  Instead the passengers will carry the ticket on the mobile as an image.  In case the app had been earlier installed, it needs to be updated. The city 'Mumbai' has to be selected. The ticket can be purchased using money loaded in the R-wallet. The money in the R- wallet can be loaded from any UTS counter or online on www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in with a minimum value of Rs 100/- and maximum Rs 5000/-. 

For paperless ticketing, a good GPS coverage and GPRS connectivity should be available. Geo-fencing area has been earmarked for booking the tickets, i.e a person should be within 2 kms from the originating station and beyond 30 metres from the originating station premises/track. 

The application provides necessary on-screen alerts to guide the passenger during the booking process.  The paperless journey ticket once booked will be stored in the local mobile application database in the encrypted form and is tamperproof.  The passenger has to start the journey within 1 hour as per policy for suburban sections.  Ticket booked in paperless mode cannot be cancelled in order to prevent claiming of refund after travel. 

The ticket has distinct colour scheme everyday and it is embedded with Quick Response (QR) code. It cannot be forwarded to another mobile or edited or printed.  The old invalid tickets will be removed from the mobile device through a sync feature in the ‘App’. 

For the purpose of ticket checking, the application has various features such as colour scheme, show ticket features, secret code of the day, booking time of the ticket and scrolling of legend “IR UNRESERVED TICKETING’. 

CURRENCY-CUM-COIN-CUM-SMART CARD OPERATED AUTOMATIC TICKET VENDING MACHINE. (COTVM) 

Coin/Cash/Smart Card operated Ticket Vending Machine is an unmanned self-operated kiosk which can be used by passengers to buy unreserved tickets through currency/coin as well as smart cards. The kiosk accepts currency/ coin of all denominations of Rs.5/- and above.  The machine does not accept soiled/cut/glued/taped/colored notes and accepts currency notes of Gandhi series. 

COTVMS HAVE THE FOLLOWING FACILITIES

1. Issue of non-concessional second class journey tickets for non-suburban and second/first class journey/return tickets for suburban section

2. Issue of platform tickets

3. Renewal of non-concessional season tickets

4. Recharge of smart cards in denominations of Rs.20/-, Rs.50/-, Rs.100/- and Rs.500/- 

The basic difference between ATVM and CoTVM is that ATVM can issue tickets through smart cards whereas CoTVM can issue tickets using Cash (notes and coins) and smart cards as well as recharge smart cards.