Indian Railways is trying to make the ticket booking process simple and convenient. The Railway Ministry said in a statement that the Railways is taking several reformative initiatives to improve the entire journey of the passengers by keeping them at the center.
Recently, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav reviewed these reforms. He said that the ticketing system should be made smart, transparent, easy and effective, so that passengers can get more convenience.
The statement mentioned that under the current system, the reservation chart is prepared four hours before the departure of the train, due to which the passengers have to face a state of confusion. Especially for those passengers who come to catch the train from nearby areas, this situation can create problems for them.
To solve this problem, the Railway Board has proposed that now the reservation chart should be prepared eight hours before the departure of the train. The chart of trains whose time is before 2 pm will be ready at 9 pm the day before. The Railway Minister has approved this proposal and has given instructions to implement it in a phased manner so that the convenience of the passengers remains.
This decision will enable waitlisted passengers to get timely information and make alternative plans if their tickets are not confirmed. This will be especially beneficial for those who travel from far-flung or urban outskirts.
Along with this, the Railway Minister also reviewed the technical upgradation of the Passenger Reservation System (PRS), which CRIS has been implementing for the last few months. The new PRS system will be faster, flexible and capable of handling ten times more load than the existing capacity. It will facilitate more than 1.5 lakh ticket bookings every minute, which is about five times more than the current capacity. Also, the ticket inquiry capacity will also increase from 4 lakh to 40 lakh per minute.
The new system will be equipped with a multilingual and user-friendly interface, in which passengers will be able to get facilities like choosing their preferred seat and viewing the fare calendar. Special arrangements have also been made for Divyangjan, students and patients.
Strict Identification System For Tatkal booking
The Railway Minister has given instructions to strengthen authentication to make Tatkal ticket booking transparent and secure. From July 1, 2025, only authenticated users will be able to book Tatkal tickets through IRCTC website and mobile app. Apart from this, OTP based authentication will also be implemented by the end of July.
In this process, the user will be verified through Aadhaar or any valid government identity card present in DigiLocker.
All these steps have been taken towards making the railways more modern, safe and passenger-centric.
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