Indian Railways had rolled out its own e-ticketing service in 2011. However, this service was available only in English till now. In a country where Hindi is undoubtedly the most commonly used language, and English is limited mostly to the urban population, this e-ticketing service launched by the Indian Railways was not being used to the optimum level.
The Indian Railways, in a bid to improve and enhance the public facilities across the maximum number of railway stations, and responding to the need of optimum utilisation of the e-ticketing facility, has now launched E-Ticketing portal in Hindi to give a better Journey Experience to all its passengers. This will work towards removing the middle man in the form of touts and travel agents charging commissions and ensure innovation, transparency, efficiency, speed across the nation for more number of people.
With the inclusion of the e-ticketing service in Hindi by the Ministry of Railways, more people with access to the e-ticketing facility will be able to take advantage of not only the hassle free form of booking tickets, but will also be able to understand the fares and trains available for various stations as well as the offers and discounts.
E-Ticketing and its Benefits
- Availability of tickets is transparent.
- There is no requirement to stand in long queues.
- There is no role of travel agents and commercial organisations and thus no scenario of commissions to be paid.
- With travel agents being previously accused of blocking tickets to sell later at a premium on the IRCTC portal, Indian Railways allows only individual users to book on the portal.
- The payment is hassle free and cashless.
- Being paper free, it is environment-friendly too.
- The e-ticketing service is available at www.indianrailways.gov.in
Efforts By Ministry Of Railways
The Ministry Of Railways under the helm of Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is putting in maximum efforts to make railway travel hassle free and comfortable for the citizens of India.
- A comprehensive Complaint Redressal System for better passenger service is being developed.
- The next generation ticketing system was introduced under Prabhu which enhanced ability of IRCTC website to handle 15,000 concurrent users from previous 2000.
- Digitization and ERP initiative called One-ICT ( implemented to enhance and modernise services and operations with the help of information technology experts from India and abroad) led to savings of more than Rs 55,000 crore.
- Ministry of Railways also conducted the largest ever online exam across the world with 100% online recruitment for all staff posts.
- With more than 8,000 stations under its purview, the Indian Railways is making every effort to ensure that the passengers have a seamless and comfortable travel.
- Amenities and facilities are being augmented at regular intervals so that the passengers are comfortable.
This does come as a good news for the Indian Railways, especially after it was in the news for wrong reasons when CAG found that food served on trains was unfit for human consumption.
