Railway general tickets to be available in banks

The Indian Railways and the State Bank of India are in constant touch to work out the modalities.

In a major step towards easing availability of train tickets, the Indian Railways will soon start disbursing tickets of the general class from banks.

The railway board had started working on this in August 2016 and the initiative is said to be in its final stages now. The Indian Railways and the State Bank of India are in constant touch to work out the modalities for this.

The project will reach its final satges by April 2017 after which a trial run will begin soon.

The Indian Railways is considering two options for this new initiative. One is to make tickets available to the travelers by installing an automated vending machine in the bank premises. And the other is to make changes in the ATM and link them with railway's ticket distribution system.

Convenience to commuters:

Railways has said that this would make procuring tickets very convienient. Railways is expecting that crowd outside ticket counters to reduce drastically after this. Travelers will also be freed from hassles of standing in long queues.

Similar initiatives to reduce hassle:

The Mango post office in Jamshedpur has already been selling general tickets for the last five years. Tickets can also be purchased from bus stand in Mango from a counter opened by railways.

In Tata nagar railway station, there are two CoATVMs installed from which general tickets can be purchased using notes, coins and smart cards. Over 15, 000 general tickets are sold in Tata nagar daily.

Over 500 tickets are made available through post office and bus stand in Mango, and close to 150 tickets are disbused through CoATVMs.

OneIndia News