IT Enabled Passenger Services Launched by Indian Railways
Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu Launched these Services Through Video Conferencing from New Delhi
The Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched following IT enabled passenger services through video conferencing from New Delhi:
1. Paperless Unreserved Ticketing through Mobile Phones on suburban stations over Central Railway
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Paperless Platforms tickets at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Dadar Central, Panvel, Thane and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Andheri, Mumbai Central, Borivali, Dadar Western, Dadar Central, Vasai Road, Bandra, New Delhi and Nizamudding stations on Northern Railway, Western Railway and Central Railway
3. Paperless Season tickets on suburban sections of Western Railway, Central Railway and New Delhi-Palwal Section of Northern Railway.
4. Currency, Coin - cum - Card operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines at various suburban stations on Central Railway and Western Railway.
5. Train Enquiry Mobile Application on iOS platform.
On this occasion ,Chairman Railway Board, Shri AK Mital and other Board Members, Additional Member(C&IS) Shri Mohd. Jamshed, MD CRIS Ms Vandana Nanda were among those present at the programme.
Speaking on the occasion , Minister Of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu said ¬“Moving ahead in the direction of making Digital India, today, I am happy to inaugurate the System for Paperless Unreserved Tickets, Paperless Season Tickets and Paperless Platform Tickets through Mobile Phones, in the Mumbai Suburban system of WR and CR and Delhi – Palwal section of Northern Railway from today.
About 50 Currency-cum-coin-cum-card Ticket Vending Machines (CoTVMs) are now functional over various stations.
I am also happy to inaugurate the Currency and Coin Operated Ticket Vending Machines (CoTVMs), being installed at various stations of Central and Western Railway. All these initiatives were promised in my Budget Speech this year.
Another initiative that is being launched today is the Train Enquiry Mobile App on the iOS that is Apple platform. This app has been working very well on the Android and Windows based mobile phones and now will give good facilities for Apple phone users also.
The paperless Unreserved Ticketing System is a boon for passengers traveling in suburban areas, since it will drastically reduce the time a passenger takes at the station, waiting in queue to buy a ticket. It will enable “Mission 5 minutes” (not more than 5 minutes to buy a ticket) to become a reality. Railways will also benefit from this innovation because they will be able to cope with higher ticket sales with lower investments.
The Paperless Ticketing service is already running in some sections of Mumbai Western Railway and Delhi. With the latest launch, this service will be available across all of Mumbai’s suburban sections on both Central and Western Railways. This system is based on the “UTS on Mobile” app, which has a “Railway Wallet” feature. While this system has been introduced to increase passenger convenience, a few safeguards have been built-in to prevent misuse of the tickets. Firstly, the tickets cannot be forwarded from one phone to another. Second, one cannot buy the ticket after starting one’s journey. A system of distinct daily colour codes, embedded QR codes, and sync feature has been devised to ease the work of the ticket examiners, while providing unparalleled convenience to the users.
A very useful feature added today is that of buying Paperless Season Tickets and Paperless Platform Tickets through the Mobile App. The Paperless Season Ticket feature will be particularly useful for the suburban passengers, large numbers of whom travel on Season Tickets.
Another innovative system being introduced for Mumbai suburban section of Western Railway and Central Railway is the Cash/Smart Card operated Ticket Vending Machine (CoTVM), which is a self-service kiosk for passengers to buy their own unreserved tickets. It has a user-friendly graphical interface that can be used by all passengers. The machine takes currency notes and coins in addition to smart cards for payment. This will save the passengers’ precious time, and will ease the pressure on the Railway administration as well, enabling them to give better service to the passengers. Again, security features”
Procedure for booking of Paperless Unreserved Journey tickets, Season tickets and Platform tickets.
Download the Mobile application from Google Play Store or Windows Store.
• Register by providing Mobile Number, Name, City, Train Type, Class, Ticket Type, Number of Passengers and Frequently travel routes.
• Payment has to be made using R-Wallet. Upon successful registration, R-Wallet will be opened with Zero Balance.
• Value can be topped up in R-Wallet by tendering cash across the nominated counter and also online on website “utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in”.
• Passenger can book single Journey ticket, Platform ticket as well as season tickets by choosing appropriate option in the App.
• The Smart Phone should be GPS enabled to book single journey ticket and Platform ticket.
Functioning Of CoTVM
Cash/Smart card operated ticket vending machine (CoTVM) is a self-operated kiosk, which can be used by passengers to buy unreserved tickets through currency/coins/smart cards and to recharge smart cards. These kiosks have easy graphical interface for ticket transaction so that the user can operate these machines themselves. The kiosk accepts currency/coin of all glued/taped/coloured notes and accepts currency notes of Gandhi series. CoTVMs will reduce queue lengths at existing ticket counters by providing an alternate unmanned ticketing solution and mode of payment.
CoTVMs have the following functions.
1. Issue of non-concessional second class journey tickets for non-suburban section and second/first class journey/return tickets for suburban section.
2. Issue of platform tickets.
3. Renewal of non-concessional season tickets.
4. Recharge of smart cards in denominations of Rs. 20/-, Rs. 50/-, Rs. 100/- and Rs. 500/-.
CoTVM consists of:
1. Thin Client 2. Thermal Printer 3. Touch screen 4. RFID reader
5. Cash Validator with 15 notes escrow 6. Coin Validator with 10 coins escrow
7. The cash box has the capacity to hold 25,000 notes and 3,000 coins.
The basic difference between automatic ticket vending machine (ATVM) installed upto now and CoTVM is that ATVM can issue tickets through smart cards only whereas CoTVM can issue tickets using cash (notes & coins) and smart cards. It can also be used for recharging these smart cards.
Security of CoTVM
The machine has two access doors, both at the front side of the machine and is equipped with mechanical & electronic locks. One door is used for maintenance activity by the service engineer. The second door is for accessing the cash box and is integrated with an alarm system. The alarm will go off whenever the door is opened by any unauthorized person. The machine has a cash box with electro mechanical lock at the bottom. Whenever the authorized supervisor wants to open the cash box to takeout shift cash, he/she will gain access to the machine by using a supervisory smart card and his password. After entering the password, machine will print the Daily Trains Cash-cum-Summary Book (DTC) for accountal of the collected cash.
Commissioning of CoTVM
On 01.09.2015, 6 CoTVMs were inaugurated at New Delhi of Northern Railway and 08 CoTVMs at Sealdah & Howrah stations of Eastern Railway. So far, total 48 CoTVMs have been commissioned over Northern Railway and Eastern Railway.
Train Enquiry Mobile Application on iOS platform
Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), the IT arm of Indian Railways, has enhanced the train enquiry system by developing mobile apps. Mobile app for Windows 8 and Android were launched earlier and are widely used by rail passengers. Now one more step ahead, mobile app for iOS platform has also been developed and ready for launch. It has now become easier for the rail passengers to track information on expected arrival and departure timings of a particular train and other information.
National Train Enquiry System (NTES) is the base system which provides information to public about train running on near real time through various interfaces like nationwide unique rail enquiry number 139, website (www.trainenquiry.com), mobile interfaces, Touch Screens, Face to Face enquiry and Display Boards at stations.
One of the best features of the app is ‘spot your train’ which provides information such as its current position, expected time of arrival and departure at a particular station. Other features are ‘train schedule’, ‘train between station’, ‘live station’, ‘information on cancelled, rescheduled & diverted trains’. ‘Live Station’ query provides list of trains expected to arrive at/depart from any station in next 2 or 4 hours.
Thus, CRIS has made available train enquiry app for three most commonly used mobile platforms viz. Windows, Android and iOS.
The NTES app is available as a free download from App store.

Scope of Facility to Book Train Berth under Senior Citizen Quota Enhanced
With a view to meet the requirements of senior citizens, ladies passengers above the age of 45 and pregnant women travelling alone in trains, a reservation quota of two lower berths per coach in Sleeper, 3AC & 2AC classes was earmarked for these categories of passengers in all trains having sleeping accommodation in 2007. Recently, this accommodation earmarked in Sleeper class has been enhanced to four lower berths per coach instead of two lower berths per coach as per earlier provision. There is, however, no change in the number of lower berths earmarked in 3AC and 2AC classes.
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were being received that in case two senior citizens (husband and wife) want to book berth under this quota, they are denied this facility despite the fact that both of them are senior citizens. It was, therefore, being requested that this facility should be provided even when two senior citizens are going together.
The reason for allowing senior citizens to book tickets under this quota only when travelling alone was that since only two/four lower berths per coach are being earmarked, there is a possibility that when two senior citizens travelling together book the ticket, they may get a scattered accommodation in two different coaches where the lower berths might be available. This will be the cause of complaint and then references will be received as to how the railway is facilitating two senior citizens by giving them scattered accommodation in two different coaches.
However, keeping in view the demands for providing this facility even when more than one passenger are travelling, it was decided that the facility of booking tickets under senior citizen quota may be provided where in a single application, even if two passengers are in combination of senior citizens /female passengers above the age of 45 years/pregnant women. This facility can be availed only if both the passengers intending to avail this facility are eligible to book berth under senior citizen quota i.e. either both of them should be senior citizens or ladies above the age of 45 or pregnant women or a combination of one senior citizen and one lady above the age of 45 or pregnant women, etc.
From above, it is evident that vide New Commercial Circular No. 51, of Railway Board 2015, the scope of facility already available to senior citizens, female passengers above the age of 45 years and pregnant women to book accommodation under senior citizen quota has been enhanced. Earlier senior citizens /female passengers above the age of 45 years/pregnant women could book accommodation under this quota only when travelling alone whereas now they will be able to book accommodation even when two passengers of these categories (either both from the same category or combination of one from any two categories) are travelling.

Doubling of Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route (284 Km) of railways
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved doubling of the Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag railway line at an anticipated cost of Rs.1618 crore and completion cost of Rs.2058 crore. Out of this, Rs.946 crore (completion cost) is already received from NTPC under the Customer Funding Model for doubling of the stretch between Hotgi-Kudgi (134 km) and the remaining amount of Rs.1107.58 crore will be funded through the Gross Budgetary Support of Ministry of Railways or Extra Budgetary Resources or both.
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number of Integrated Steel Plants/Power Plants/Cement Plants are coming up along the Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route. This doubling work will provide the necessary line capacity for introduction of additional trains and smooth movement of rakes to/from the industries/power plants. This will also boost overall development of the region. In view of the industrial activities taking place in the area, demands are also being received for running of additional train services through this route.
Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag route is a single line rail link between Guntakal-Pune-Mumbai and Hospet-Hubli-Goa rail routes. This is an important rail link connecting the cities of Bangalore and Mumbai.

Government of India
Ministry of Railways
04-September-2015 17:55 IST
Shri Suresh Prabhu Flags Off Andaman Express Through Remote Control From Jammu Tawi to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar...
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Prabhu, flagged off 16031 Chennai Central Jammu Tawi Andaman Express Train from Jammu Tawi to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SVDK). This is the extension of the existing train from Jammu Tawi to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra(SVDK). The flagging off was done through remote control by organising a video conferencing by Rail Bhawan(New Delhi) and Jammu Tawi Railway Station. The other Dignitaries present at the function at New Delhi end included Dr. Jitender Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Development of North Eastern Region, and MOS in Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Shri Manoj Sinha, Union Minister of State for Railways, Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Power Development and Housing & Urban Development, Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir, Shri A.K. Puthia General Manager, Northern Railway. At Jammu end, Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha Shri Shamsher Singh Manhas, Shri Sat Sharma, Member of Legislative Assembly, Jammu and Kashmir were among those present on the occasion.
In his address the Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that it is necessary to provide good transportation facilities to the places of pilgrimage from every part of the country. Indian Railway is making sincere efforts in providing best connectivity to the places of pilgrimage. He said that Ministry of Railway is committed to the development of Railway infrastructure in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that a meeting of consultative committee attached with Ministry of Railway was organised at Srinagar recently. Shri Suresh Prabhu said that he will soon hold a meeting at Jammu to review the progress of various Railway Projects. Shri Suresh Prabhu reiterated that Hon’ble Prime Minister has always been emphasizing the need to give priority to the development activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
In his address, Dr. Jitender Singh said that it is heartening to see that Indian Railways is paying a lot of attention to the development of the Railway Infrastructure in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He complemented Indian Railways for meeting the demand of people of Katra for increased connectivity with rest of the Nation. He pointed out that Railway represents the culture of the country. He said that when the train services reached Katra, many people of the region saw a train for the first time in the life.
In his address Dr. Nirmal Singh appreciated the steps taken by Indian Railways to provide better connectivity to Katra from different parts of the country. He said that Hon’ble Prime Minister has been personally concerned about the Railway Projects in the Jammu and Kashmir. He praised the Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu for his dynamism and initiatives in improving the Railway services.
Shri A.K.Puthia in his welcome address outlined the progress of various Railway Projects being undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir.
Brief Backgrounder about trains services in Jammu and Kashmir and Katra :

· It has been planned to extend 13 pairs of train services originating from various parts of the country upto Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SVDK)/Udhampur. Out of these, 05 pairs have already been extended upto SVDK w.e.f. 01.09.2015 and 02.09.2015.

· Extension of 16031/16032 Chennai-Jammu Tawi Andaman Express upto SVDK has been flagged off today on 04.09.2015 by Minister of Railways from Rail Bhawan,

· The schedule of this train is as follows:-



16031 Chennai-Jammu Tawi Andaman Express (Tri-weekly)
Station
16032 Jammu Tawi-Chennai Andaman Express (Tri-weekly)
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
--
05:15 (W, Th, Su)
Chennai
10:10 (Th, Su, M)
--
13:10
13:20
Jammu Tawi
23:35
23:45
15:20 (F, Sa, Tu)
--
SVDK
--
21:55 (Tu, F, Sa)
*Commercial stoppage at Udhampur

· In the Railway Budget 2014-15, introduction of 07 pair of Mail/Express trains, 03 pair of Premium trains and 02 pair of DEMU trains have been announced out of which 09 pair of train services have already been introduced. Remaining 03 pair of train services will be introduced as and when Rolling stocks are available.

· List of the trains announced in the Railway Budget 2014-15 which would serve the State of Jammu & Kashmir and status of implementation are as under:-

S. No.
Train no
From
To
Frequency
Type
Status
1.
19805/19806
Kota
Udhampur
Weekly
Express
Introduced w.e.f. 12.11.2014
2.
14713/14714
Sriganganagar
Jammu Tawi
Weekly
Express
Introduced w.e.f. 24.09.2014
3.
22941/22942
Indore
Jammu Tawi
Weekly
Express
Introduced w.e.f. 29.12.2014
4.
14155/14156
Kanpur
Jammu Tawi
Bi-weekly
Express
Introduced w.e.f. 09.06.2015
5.
22461/22462
New Delhi
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Daily
Superfast
Introduced w.e.f. 14.07.2014
6.
22679/22680
Yashwantpur
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Weekly
Premium
Introduced w.e.f. 29.01.2015
7.
19415/19416
Ahmadabad
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Weekly
Express
Introduced w.e.f. 25.01.2015
8.
74615/74616
Baramula
Banihal
6 days a week
DEMU
Introduced w.e.f. 09.07.2015
9.
74613/74614
Baramula
Budgam
6 days a week
DEMU
10.
15655/15656
Kamyakhya
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Weekly
Express
Will be introduced as and when Rolling stocks are available
11.
22923/22934
Bandra
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Weekly*
Premium
12.
22313/22314
Sealdah
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Weekly*
Premium

· The 04 pairs of train services which were running as special trains on Baramulla-Banihal, Baramulla-Badgam and Badgam-Banihal section has been made run as regular service. Now, Baramulla-Budgam-Banihal section is presently being served by 13 pairs of train services (Baramulla-Banihal section is being served by 04 pairs of train services, Baramulla-Badgam section is presently being served by 07 pairs of train services and Badgam-Banihal section is being served by 10 pairs of train services).

· Apart from this, 24 pair of mail/express trains serving the state of Jammu & Kashmir have been permanently augmented by utilising 24 coaches during 2015-16.

· Presently, Jammu Tawi station is being served by 51 pairs of train services while Udhampur station is being served by 13 pairs of train services.

· Besides, to clear extra rush of passengers during summer, festive seasons or in connection with various religious congregations, special trains are made run serving the state of Jammu & Kashmir from various destinations as per the volume of traffic as and when required.

The list of 13 pairs of trains planned for extension upto SVDK/Udhampur and their status is as under:-
Sl.No.
Train No. and Name
Approved for extention upto
Status
1.
16031/16032 Chennai-Jammu Tawi Andaman Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
Will extend from 04.09.2015
2.
12477/12478 Jamnagar-Jammu Tawi Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
01.09.2015 from Jamnagar
06.09.2015 from SVDK
3.
11449/11450 Jabalpur-Jammu Tawi Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
01.09.2015 from Jabalpur
02.09.2015 from SVDK
4.
12445/12446 New Delhi-Udhampur Uttar Samark Kranti Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
01.09.2015 from New Delhi
02.09.2015 from SVDK
5.
14033/14034 Delhi Udhampur Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
01.09.2015 from New Delhi
02.09.2015 from SVDK
6.
14155/14156 Kanpur-Jammu Tawi Express
Udhampur
01.09.2015 from Kanpur
02.09.2015 from SVDK
7.
12471/12472 Bandra (T)-Jammu Tawi Swaraj Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
03.09.2015 from Bandra T
01.09.2015 from SVDK
8.
12473/12474 Ahmedabad-Jammu Tawi Sarvodaya Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
05.09.2015 from Ahmedabad
03.09.2015 from SVDK
9.
12475/12476 Hapa-Jammu Tawi Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
02.09.2015 from Hapa
07.09.2015 from SVDK
10.
14609/14610 Rishikesh-Jammu Tawi Hemkunth Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
09.09.2015 from Rishikesh and 10.09.2015 from SVDK

11.
16317/16318 Kanyakumari-Jammu Tawi Himsagar Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
04.09.2015 from Kanyakumari 07.09.2015 from SVDK
12.
16687/16688 Mangalore Central-Jammu Tawi Navyug Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
31.08.2015 from Manglore Central From SVDK-03.09.2015
13.
19803/19804 Kota-Jammu Tawi Express
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra
05.09.2015 from Kota
06.09.2015 from SVDK

03-August-2015 18:01 IST
Measures to Prevent Menace of Rats in Trains
Railways is taking measures to prevent menace of rats. For this, coaches are subjected to rodent treatment in coaching depots under comprehensive pest & rodent control treatment as per scheduled periodicity. Besides, pantry cars are completely vacated before undertaking rodent treatment of coaches and cleaning in primary maintenance depot. Pantry car staff are being counseled for proper upkeep and maintenance of cleanliness in pantry cars. Suitable penalties are also imposed on the agency undertaking rodent treatment of coaches against performance deficiency...
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as per terms and conditions of contract. Complaints/suggestions, whenever received, are acted upon appropriately by Railways and suitable corrective action is initiated to prevent its recurrence.
Besides, inspections/checks are also carried out at various levels to monitor the quality of rodent control treatment in coaches.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.