Railways to strengthen Phone No. 139 inquiry system

New Delhi, Oct 5 (UNI) Phone No. 139 inquiry system of the Indian Railways for providing arrival and departure schedules of the trains, which is currently operational in Bihar and Karnataka, will be expanded across 14 zonal locations, it was announced here today.

''In view of the popularity of this Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), it has been decided to strengthen the service with 8-9 months in at least 14 zonal locations of the Railways, RailTel MD K K Bajpayee told reporters here.

Mr Bajpayee said call centres set up in Patna and Bangalore for Phone No. 139 service had received an enthusiastic response, spurring the Railways to set up more such call centres.

He also informed that cyber cafes had so far been set up at 82 stations while bids for 120 more such facilities had been invited.

''We have also identified 200 more stations to provide cyber cafe facility and bids for these will be invited soon,'' Mr Bajpayee said.

Mr Bajpayee said the Railway Ministry and the IIT, Kanpur had developed a Global Positioning System (GPS)-based wireless technology to track the location and speed of a running train.

''The technology is now on a trial basis and we hope to implement it within two years,'' he said.

On providing Internet facility in running trains, Mr Bajpayee said technology was there but it would not make a ''good business case'' in view of poor penetration of computers in the country.

In some western countries, especially Britain, this system has been introduced some years ago.

''We will adopt this technology only when it makes a good business sense,'' he said.

UNI SKS AK BS1822