The Hindu : Front Page : Fire paralyses train ticketing system

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Sunday, Dec 24, 2006
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Fire paralyses train ticketing system

S. Vydhianathan

SERPENTINE QUEUE: Heavy crowd at the Egmore railway station, following the system failure on Saturday. — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

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CHENNAI: System failure due to a fire in a cable duct in front of Moore Market Complex here on Saturday paralysed computerised reservation and issue of unreserved tickets at many stations in Tamil Nadu and in a few locations in Kerala.

As 75 per cent of the communication links failed, computerised reservation was affected for over six hours at Egmore, Besant Nagar, Arakkonam, Avadi, Integral Coach Factory and Anna Nagar PRS centres. Luckily, work in Moore Market Complex was not affected. The unreserved ticketing system was restored at 12.30 pm at Chennai Central, at 3 p.m. at St.Thomas Mont, Mambalam, Gummidipundi, Sullurpet, Tiruttani, and Chengalpet and at 5 pm at Egmore. The fault slowed down operations at all PRS centres in Southern Railway.

Officials came to know of the fire only when the authorities from suburban stations and Central station informed them of the system failure. Immediately, the duct was opened and the fire was put out.

But by that time 55 BSNL cable circuits and 30 railway cable circuits had been damaged. Only by Sunday morning will all circuits be restored.

Fourteen additional counters besides 12 regular counters are functioning for issuing tickets manually.

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