Sir,

The recent move by the Ministry of Railways to introduce hand-held terminals to TTEs to allocate berths is welcome. In an age of rapid technological development, advanced changes implemented in the Indian Railways computerised reservation system is highly appreciated, especially if it is an environment-friendly move.

The Railways now should not waste much time and quickly implement such a system to allocate RAC/Waitlisted passengers automatically across all the categories of trains for the booked tickets.

The Railway Board is further suggested to do away with an another archaic rule which has no essence in today’s busy world. The online booking system and an offline mechanism allows a reserved ticket holder to change the boarding point only 24 hours prior to the departure of the train. Such a rule now holds no value as it is practically not possible to make a decision  to change the boarding point from the original station just within 24 hours prior to the departure of a train. Such a decision needs a maximum of 6 to 12 hours than the existing 24 hours rule prior to the departure.

Many passengers especially who travel for business and on official purpose find such a rule infeasible and it is hard for any passenger to make a decision within a day to change the boarding point.

Hence the Ministry of Railways and the Railway Board concerned is suggested to look into advancing the maximum time required to change the boarding point from the existing 24 hours to a maximum of at least 6 to 12 hours prior to departure of the train. Such a move will certainly give benefit of doubt to the passengers and enable them to take a judicious decision to board at selected destination within short notice of the train’s original departure time.

– Varun Dambal, Bengaluru, 20.12.2018

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