New Delhi. The Ministry of Railways has taken a big decision to rid the passengers from touts. Especially people living in rural areas will get a big relief from the new decision.
To travel by trains, people will be able to book reserved tickets from post offices. The Ministry of Railways and CSC-SPV together have started the pilot project of the scheme from Uttar Pradesh. Gradually, this facility will be available in more than 9000 post offices of the state, which will facilitate people in booking tickets.
To travel in reserved class by trains, many people have to resort to touts to book tickets. Especially people living in rural areas have a compulsion to go to brokers. Because the cities are far away, booking tickets at the reservation centers will be expensive and the vendors who book tickets charge per passenger, that is also expensive. Railway Ministry’s PSU RailTel has started the scheme to facilitate such people.
Uttar Pradesh Post and Telecom Director Abhishek Singh told News18 Hindi that there are Common Service Centers (CSCs) in post offices, where various types of government works are processed. Now tickets for trains will also be given at these centers. He said that this facility would be available in the CSCs of a total of 9147 post offices across the state. The normal charge will be charged from the people in lieu of the ticket, which is taken in lieu of other facilities. Right now it has been started from two districts of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi and Prayagraj, gradually their number will increase.
IRCTC will provide the resource for tickets from the post offices. According to IRCTC, at present around 11 lakh tickets are booked online on an average daily. After the start of ticket booking from the post office CSC, the number of tickets booked daily will increase.
According to Dr. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, Managing Director, CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC-SPV), access to digital services in rural India is often hampered due to lack of connectivity in remote villages. Availability of Wi-Fi and Kiosk infrastructure of RailTel will help in making the services accessible to the people.
