Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Railway ticket vending machine to be commissioned today

Staff Reporter

Tickets to Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town and Ernakulam Junction available

Thiruvananthapuram: After vending machine that provides platform tickets, it is the turn of vending machine that provides railway tickets at the press of a button.

All the commuter needs to do is to insert the currency note and coin as specified in the vending machine, follow the instructions and walk away with the ticket to the railway station where you want to alight. The intelligent automatic ticket vending machine or the multi-ticket vending machine would also return the balance due to the commuter.

Installed near the booking office of Thiruvananthapuram Central, the Rs.2.5 lakhs worth vending machine would also help avoid the commuters from standing in the queue. Railway tickets to five major railway stations in Thiruvananthapuram railway division would be provided by the vending machine.

Adult, Child, Second Class, Mail and Express tickets to Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town and Ernakulam Junction via both Kottayam and Alappuzha railway stations would be issued from the vending machine. The five stations were selected based on the maximum number of tickets issued from Thiruvananthapuram Central, a railway spokesman said.

Tickets for a group of four persons can be issued from the multi-ticket vending machine at a time, he said. Season and concession tickets, including those for Senior Citizens and those for Passenger trains cannot be issued from the machine. Only current tickets can be issued from the vending machine.

The machine would accept only currency notes of the denomination of Rs. 5, 10, 50 and 100 and new Rs.1 and Rs.5 coins. The balance due to the commuter will be dispensed from the vending machine in the form of Rs.1coins.

The highest amount to be accepted by the machine from the commuter would be next higher multiples of Rs. 5.

The vending machine would be officially commissioned by general manager of Southern Railway Thomas Varghese on Tuesday. Already, the Southern Railway had installed a similar machine at Chennai Central station. The railways have plans to install the second vending machine at Ernakulam junction, the spokesman added.

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