FOLLOWING IS A MAIL I SENT TO INDIAN RAILWAY AUTHORITY. PLZ HAVE A LOOK AT THIS AND POST YOUR OPINION...
Sir/ Madam,
After the promulgation of the circular of 'Travelling with electronic tickets in elctronic media like Laptop/Ipad' and recently of 'Travelling with SMS received from IRCTC after ticket booking' (of course with a valid ID card) I always used to travel by these means. As a member of common-mass and railway traveler and as a techno-freak I embraced these rules as most welcome.
But...
more... several times I ended up with a lot of post-journey problems. For your kind perusal here it is:-
However, I never faced any problem on-board the train while carrying tickets in electronic media. The TTE verified the soft-copy of those tickets and my ID proof against the reservation-chart he had and this was a smooth procedure. I often travel from Kolkata-Delhi-Chennai-Bangalore mostly by Rajdhani and Shatabdi express and often I need to slip from this when I need to travel between some places in some other trains where Rajdhanis or Shatabdis are not available.
The problem now crops up. Soon after the arrival in destination and getting down from the train I head towards that particular station-exit as all other passengers do and very often I was perturbed by the platform TTEs standing at the exit-gate. This time it becomes very difficult to switch on my laptop while carrying heavy luggage with me, alone. As the TTE says here ID card doesn't suffice to meet his requirement of verification as he has no chart in his hand. So it is mandatory to show him my ticket. Now, after this bit of interrogation the process gets more crappy. For me, booting up my laptop for showing the ticket contributes in formation of a long queue of passengers in a busy station in rush hours and evidently I am abused by the passengers in hurry standing behind me. But it's palpable that regarding this issue I have nothing to do.
From right to information, I, hereby, want to know what is the exact rules ad regulations by Indian Railway pertinent this matter.
Please clarify me asap. Otherwise the electronic-ticket-carry system goes to be a real 'hoax' and a huge trouble for travelers like me who also suffered from this problem.
Looking forward to hearing from you sooner.
Thank you.
Regards,
DEBOJYOTI MAITY.
22 April, 2012