Railway tickets from ATM counters in Patna Junction soon

Patna, Jan 12 (UNI) After New Delhi, Patna will soon be the second railway station in the country to have the facility of ticket reservation through ATM counters.

East Central Railway(ECR) sources here today informed that the high tech system, which had recently been introduced in New Delhi station, turned out to be hugely successful with hundreds of tickets in long distance Mail and Express trains being booked everyday by different ATM card holders.

''This has encouraged the Railway authorities to introduce the similar facility in Patna Junction too in near future to enable the long distance passengers from here book their onward and return journey tickets with their respective ATM debit and credit cards, '' the sources said.

Stating that the proposed facility would be in addition to the existing facility of procuring reserved tickets from the booking counters, the sources said all the eight ATM counters of as many Banks within the station compound here would soon be upgraded to accommodate the new facility.

'' We expect there would be a huge rush of passengers to book railway tickets through the ATM counters in the Patna Junction station as soon as they are introduced as the people tend to avoid long queues near the existing counters, '' the sources said.

The new facility would open a new vista in the sphere of railway ticket booking in the country in line with the system currently available in several developed countries across the world.

Regarding the financial arragements with the Banks for providing the unique facility, the ECR sources maintained that it was still being worked out, but hinted that it might be similar with the provision of e-ticketing facility, currently being available in some selected petrol pumps in the city.

About the possiblity of extending similar facility to several other major stations in the state, the sources said there was a proposal to introduce ATM counters in 17 major stations in Bihar, including Patna Sahib, Biharshariff, Mokama, Rajgir, Bakhtiarpur, Gaya and Jhanjha this year.

However, none of these would have the ticket booking facility, he said.

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