Hand-Held Terminals For Rajdhani, Shatabdi To Bring In Transparency In Berth Allotment

Bhubaneswar: As part of the national transporter’s effort to introduce digital initiatives, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Monday introduce Hand-Held Terminals (HHT) loaded with passenger reservation chart in Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, on a trial basis.

It has received received 33 HHT. Among these 21 HHT are for Rajdhani and 12 for Shatabdi. SIM cards are being provided and it is ready for launch within the next few days, the ECoR sources said.

The HHT loaded with passenger reservation chart is connected with Passenger Reservation System through GPRS. This will update the details of booking of tickets through online method at every station where the train stops.

Passengers with Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) or waiting list ticket can check with the TTE’s HHT about the availability of vacant berths. This will also bring transparency and avoid corruption in allotting berths for RAC or waiting list passengers on running trains.

The HHT can also be used for collecting excess fare, penalty and other charges from passengers and issuing the receipt for the same to them.

Apart from this, allotment of vacant berths will be easier in a transparent way, the sources added.

Benefits:

1. Real time reflection of vacant berths to passengers who are boarding train from next station.

2. It will also result in greater availability of vacant berths to wait listed passengers. Hence more passenger satisfaction.

3. More bookings will also result in increased railway revenue.

4. It will also give a boost to digital India initiative.

5. Will give more self respect and pride to checking staff as they will working with gadget.

6. Will help in preserving the environment as checking staff will not have to carry reservation charts.