The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Travel ticket booking in post offices launched

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Travel ticket booking in post offices launched

Special Correspondent

It will initially operate in 27 post offices in Chennai and 10 in Tiruchi
The Postal Department will get 60 per cent
of the revenue

CHENNAI: The Postal Department, together with ARM I Solutions, launched air, rail and bus ticket booking in post offices on Monday.

Initially, tickets of all domestic airlines, train tickets and tickets of buses of Sharma Transports, Rathimeena Travels, Vijayanand Travels and Eagle Corporation could be booked.

Indira Krishna Kumar, Principal Chief Postmaster-General, Tamil Nadu Circle, said the facility would take the post offices closer to the common man.

Recently the Department of Posts had tied up with Air Deccan to sell flight tickets, she said. With the congestion in the air space increasing, the road transport assumed significance.

So, it was decided to incorporate the booking of bus tickets into the new system. Initially the scheme would be introduced in 27 post offices in Chennai and 10 in Tiruchi. It would soon be extended to post offices in the Coimbatore and Madurai circles soon, she added.

Anna Road Head Post Office, Chennai GPO, Adyar, Besant Nagar, T. Nagar, Mylapore, Tambaram, Anna Nagar, Perambur, Kilpauk, Greams Road, Triplicane, R.A.Puram, Saidapet, Tiruvanmiyur were some of the places where people could book tickets, the organisers said.

Usman Fayaz, chairman, ARM I Solutions Private Limited, said the company conducted two sessions of training for 150 employees of the Postal Department in Chennai and 100 in Tiruchi. As for the revenue sharing, he said the Postal Department would get 60 per cent, and the rest would go to ARM I Solutions.

To encourage more people to book tickets in post offices, the company proposed to provide some kind of incentives, Mr. Fayaz said.

India Post and ARM expected to roll out travel ticketing services in 8,000 post offices in the next 12-15 months.

Soon it would expand the e-ticketing system to accept call centre and internet-based orders and delivery through normal mail and express mail to all parts of the country.

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