In the next three months Central Railway (CR) officials plan to install 1,000 automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) on stations.
The Railway Board has asked CR and Western Railway to prepare a plan for phasing out coupon validating machines by March 2013. Both the railways will have to increase ATVMs to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced during the switchover.
“Around 1,000 ATVMs will be procured within three to four months,” a senior CR official said. “Our aim is to reduce the waiting period to purchase tickets. There are 225 ATVMs across 76 CR stations. Of which, some will have to be phased out as they have become unfit,” the official added.Thecostof a single ATVM is estimated to be around Rs 1to 1.25 lakh.
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On an average, ATVMs and the unreserved ticketing system (UTS) booking windows dispense two lakh and eight lakh tickets daily.
CR has already made it mandatory for passengers to lineup at the booking officeto buy CVM booklets. As a result, their sale has dropped. “As compared to 92 lakh booklets sold in April 2011, only 59 lakh were sold in the corresponding periodthis year,” an official said.