Banks to provide facilities for online railway ticket booking

Chennai, Aug 3 (UNI) Leading nationalised banks including Indian Bank and Canara Bank, in an attempt to introduce more customer friendly schemes, are planning to provide facilities to book railway tickets online from the ATM counters.

Canara Bank had recently installed an ATM with internet and electronic railway ticketing facilities, claiming to be the first machine of its kind, in the jurisdiction of Southern Railways at the Chennai Beach station. The users could make online booking using Canara Bank ATM cards.

The amount would get debited from the users' accounts.

The machine had linked the bank's system with the railway information system and thus enabled users to access information from the ATM machins. The machines would also provide other services like mobile top-up, airline ticketing and Visa money transfers.

Canara Bank signed an MoU with the Ministry of Railways for installing 225 ATMs at railway stations across the country, including 55 in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, an Indian Bank release said here that they had signed an agreement with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) to offer train ticket booking services to the Indian Bank ATM card holders through the internet.

UNI