Railways to Get less Ticketing With QR Code 476q4m Enabled Tickets

Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said while train tickets are booked online, a QR code will also be available for those buying tickets from counters. 5x1v3j

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 24 July 2020 14:02 IST

Railways to Get less Ticketing With QR Code-Enabled Tickets

IRCTC website is said to be completely revamped j1n2n

Highlights

Railway says currently 85 percent train tickets are booked online
QR code will also be available for those buying tickets from counters
IRCTC is not planning to go completely paperless

ment

The railways will move towards less ticketing like at airports with QR code-enabled tickets, which will be scanned on handheld devices and mobile phones at the stations and on the trains, a senior official of the national transporter said on Thursday.

Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said while 85 percent train tickets are currently being booked online, a QR code will also be available for those buying tickets from counters.

"We have introduced a QR code system, which will be given on tickets. If one buys online, the code will be provided on the ticket. Even on window tickets, where one gets a physical ticket, a text message will be sent to the enger''s mobile phone, which will have a link, and the QR code will be displayed when the link is touched.

How to Book Tickets on IRCTC Website, Mobile App as Trains Resume

"Then the TTE at the stations or on the trains, either with their hand-held equipment or through their mobile phones which will have a QR application, will be able to scan the code and immediately capture the details of the engers. So the ticketing system will be completely less," he said.

Yadav said the railways is not planning to go completely paperless as of now, but will considerably reduce its use by facilitating online booking of reserved, unreserved and platform tickets.

He also said an online recharge facility of suburban cards and Kolkata Metro has been enabled. A pilot project of less ticket-checking with an airport-like check-in for all engers entering the station has been introduced at Prayagraj Junction of North Central Railway.

A spokesperson of the North Central Railway explained how the process works at the Prayagraj station.

As a enger enters the station premises, the QR code of his ticket is scanned through a mobile application and this gets updated in the software''s database. The time of scanning the QR code also gets updated in the application The station has check-in counters to minimise the exposure of the checking staff to the engers. The QR code is scanned and the thermal screening of engers initiated at these counters, the official said.

He added that the onboard ticket-checking staff also gets information on engers simultaneously - all information is provided to their handheld machines, including a coach-wise display with the number of berths, unbooked berths and number of boarding es. "This will help the smooth functioning of the line staff and also help to relay the details of the vacant berths to the next location in a real-time mode," the official said.

Yadav said the IRCTC website will be completely revamped and the processes simplified, personalised and even integrated with hotel and meal bookings. He said the railways has digitised all its assets for better monitoring. It has also established a geo-portal and developed applications for all its fixed assets such as tracks, signalling, OHE and other electrical assets, which have been mapped, the Railway Board chairman added.

The land plans of the national transporter have been authenticated, digitised and geo-referenced, Yadav said, adding that the railways has introduced digital initiatives in its freight and train operations. The Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), e-registration of demand and E-payment Gateway, Integrated Coaching Management System (ICMS), Control Office Application (COA), Crew Management System (CMS), Software-aided Train Scheduling System (SATSANG), Safety Information Management System (SIMS), auto-generation of optimised loco links are some of the applications that are being used for a smooth movement of goods trains, he said.

Yadav said the railways has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for satellite-tracking of trains. This captures real-time data relating to the speed and location of the trains, provides real-time communication to engers about arrival and departures and analytics for improved operation, he added.

In the first phase, GPS devices have been fitted on 2,700 electric locomotives and 3,800 functional diesel locomotives. In the second phase, an additional 6,000 locomotives will be integrated by December 2021, the Railway Board chairman said.

How are we staying sane during this Coronavirus lockdown? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Comments

For the latest reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.