The Hindu : National : Rail tickets from post offices soon

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Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007
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Rail tickets from post offices soon

Sujay Mehdudia

Agreement to be signed: Lalu

Dedicated freight corridor project coming
Trial run of double stack container train has begun

NEW DELHI: The Railways will soon sign an agreement to sell reserved tickets from hundreds of post offices across the country. The modalities have been finalised, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said.

Tickets are now available at petrol pumps. The Railways also drew up a project to facilitate purchase of reserved and unreserved tickets through automated teller machines (ATMs) installed by public sector banks at over 6,000 stations. The idea is to provide various alternatives including online to the public to make reservation a pleasant experience and eliminate touts and middlemen.

Freight corridor project

The steps taken for overall development of the railway network in the near future included construction of a dedicated freight corridor project on the western and eastern sector routes at an estimated cost of Rs. 30,000 crore, opening of agricultural outlets at 7,000 stations for helping farmers get a reasonable price for their produce, upgrading 21 stations to world-class through public-private partnership.

Trial run of the double stack container train on electrified routes had started. It was undertaken from the CONCOR domestic terminal at Okhla to Mathura in the electrified section and from Mathura to Gurgaon on the diesel route, according to an official release. The modified, low height 40-foot containers are suitable for transporting a range of commodities, particularly automobiles. The experiment will help to transport 360 cars a train, thrice the present capacity.

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