Karnataka - Bangalore   

E-tickets to help people save time

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Passenger convenience: M.S. Sundara Rajan (right), Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Bank, with Mahesh Mangal, Divisional Railway Manager, Bangalore Division, South Western Railway, at the inauguration of the off-site ATM and e-ticketing machine at the Bangalore City Railway Station on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: Electronic-ticketing (e-ticketing), an innovative venture by Southern Western Railway in collaboration with Indian Bank, was launched at the Bangalore City Railway Station on Tuesday.

The off-site ATM and e-ticketing machine was inaugurated by M.S. Sundara Rajan, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Bank. Mahesh Mangal, Divisional Railway Manager, Southern Western Railway, Bangalore, was the guest of honour.

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Mangal said, “E-ticketing is a different and new concept in India, where customers can book their ticket through an e-ticketing machine by using their Indian Bank ATM card and also receive the printed ticket simultaneously. The main objective behind this is to save the time of the customers and the railway authorities. This is the first venture of this sort with Indian Bank; we have further plans to set up 12 more e-ticketing machines at the City Railway Station and 45 around the city in collaboration with banks such as State Bank of India, Canara Bank and other private banks.”

Mr. Rajan said, “This will make transaction for customers very easy. They can use their ATM PIN number to operate the e-ticketing machine and the amount of the ticket will deducted from their account. We will charge a minimum amount of Rs. 12 as service charge. This e-ticketing machine is very easy to operate and contains all the information regarding Indian Railways like name of the train, train number, availability of seats, etc. Many customers consider Internet ticket booking very risky, but here they can personally operate it with their ATM card. We have plans to set up six more e-ticketing machines in Bangalore.”

Mr. Mangal said Indian Railways plans to set up 1,800 e-ticketing machines across the country in alliance with different banks. “At present the machine can issue only a confirmed ticket to the customer. We will improve this service further after observing the response from the public. The whole transaction of issuing ticket through the machine will take around five to 10 minutes.”

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