NEW FACILITIES: Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu inaugurating credit card-operated ticketing system at City Railway Station in Bangalore on Tuesday. With him are (from right) K. Rangaraya, General Manager, Canara Bank; Mahesh Kumar, Divis ional Railway Manager, and T.N. Perti, General Manager of South Western Railway. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The South Western Railway (SWR) on Tuesday launched services to offer railway information on SMS and credit/ debit card-based vending machines to issue unreserved tickets.

Minister of State for Railways R. Velu declared open all these facilities at the Bangalore City Railway Station.

Detailing the novel services, Divisional Railway Manager Mahesh Kumar said railway information on SMS — an additional feature of the existing call centre — is the first of its kind in the country.

While information about arrival/ departure, arrival/ departure alerts, PNR alerts and accommodation availability can be accessed by all mobile phone subscribers, issue of platform tickets through mobile phones is available only to BSNL subscribers. All SMS should be sent to 1390.

To know arrival timing of a train, the customer has to send ARR and train number (arr 2639); to get arrival alert, send ARA, train number, date and month (ara 2639 08feb); for departure timing, send DEP, train number (dep 2640); departure alert, DEA, train number, date and month (dea 2640 08feb); for PNR inquiry, send PNR and PNR number (pnr 4242086758); for PNR alert, send PNA and PNR number (pna 4247788339) and to know accommodation send ACC, train number, date and month (acc 6732 08feb). The short codes are not case-sensitive.

While arrival/ departure alerts will be sent to the subscriber twice — two hours and one hour before the arrival/departure of the train, PNR alert will be sent as and when the status of the tickets changes from wait-list to RAC and RAC to confirmed.

Issue of tickets

Debit/ credit card-based ticket vending kiosks have been installed at the City Railway Station in order to reduce the pressure on unreserved ticket counters. Sponsored by Canara Bank, the concept is jointly developed by Telinovation System and Exult Soft. Unreserved tickets to destinations such as Mysore, Hubli, Shimoga, Chennai, Davangere and the like would be available in these kiosks.

BSNL mobile subscribers have been provided another facility to purchase a platform ticket. When they send PFT to 1390, they would get a confirmation number. They can use the confirmation number at the kiosks installed at the City Railway Station to get the platform ticket without paying money. The amount (Rs. 3) would be debited to their BSNL account. The benefit would be extended to subscribers of other service providers soon, the officials said.

Mangalore division

Speaking to reporters after launching the services, Mr. Velu ruled out bringing Mangalore section under SWR from the Southern Railway. He said there was no proposal before the Ministry to bifurcate Mangalore from Palakkad Division and include the same under SWR.

When Mangaloreans' allegation that Mangalore was being retained under Palakkad Division at the cost of creating a new Railway Division at Salem (for which Mr. Velu is reportedly pitching-in) was brought to his notice, the Minister denied the allegation. He said Mangalore was being better served from Palakkad.

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