Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

New platform ticket vending machine at central station

Staff Reporter

17 more machines to be installed at 13 stations soon

CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY: The automated platform ticket vending machine that was installed at Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station on Friday. — Photo: S. Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to reduce the hassles faced by the public in obtaining platform tickets, the Railways has installed an automated platform ticket vending machine near the booking office at Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station.

The new machine, costing Rs.50,000, had been installed after the automated platform ticket vending machine commissioned a year ago developed snags and was unable to carry out coin validation properly. Divisional Railway Manager S. Vijayakumaran and senior railway officials visited the station to see the working of the machine that was installed on Friday evening by a Chennai-based firm.

The coins inserted into the vending machine are identified electronically. Hence, the machine cannot be manipulated by inserting metal pieces in the shape of coins. The new machine will only accept combination of Re.1 and Rs.5. Those who need a platform ticket (Rs.3) will have to insert three one rupee coins into the machine. Those needing two tickets will have to insert a Re.1 and Rs.5 coin.

Another unique feature of the machine is the imported dot matrix multi-colour printer. The machine has been provided with an automatic cut-off system. This will help deliver the ticket automatically to the user and avoid the process of tearing off the ticket from the machine as was the earlier practice.

A roll of paper fed into the vending machine can print 100 platform tickets. The platform ticket will have the name of the railway station, name of the railway and validity period of the ticket, i.e. two hours, printed on it in trilingual format.

A two-line LCD display has been provided in the vending machine to give instructions to the users.

The Railways will also install 17 platform ticket vending machines in 13 railway stations of Thiruvananthapuram railway division. Eight other platform ticket vending machines are to be installed in Palakkad, Tirur, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode and Mangalore railway stations of Palakkad railway division. The vending machines for Palakkad division has already been despatched and will be installed within two or three days.

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