Relief to commuters: Indian Railways relaxes distance restriction to 5km on general tickets

In a major decision, Indian Railways will now allow the passengers to book unreserved tickets on the UTS mobile app from a distance of upto 20 km from a station on non-suburban sections, up from 5 km now.

In suburban areas, the distance has been enhanced to 5 km from the existing 2 km.

Railways has issued new instructions to all zones on November 7, giving effect to the new proximity norms, a longstanding demand of passengers travelling in general coaches.


Within a 20-kilometre radius of the railroad station, commuters can now buy tickets without making a reservation.

"Any Zonal Railway which desires to further increase this restriction of 5 km up to 10 km shall inform CRIS of the actual distance restriction desired," the railways stated.

The UTS mobile app allows booking of season tickets, monthly passes and platform tickets, saving passengers time and sparing them long queues at ticket counters.

The mobile app works on smartphones with Android, IOS and Windows versions of operating system and can be downloaded free of cost.

Payments for the tickets can be made through wallets like R- Wallet, PayTM, Mobikwik or through Internet banking.

How to book online tickets from UTS app

• Download UTS App on your mobile phone
• Click on the booking ticket menu and select Normal booking
• Select the departure station name and destination name and ticket type.
• Choose the type of ticket
• Make the final payment
• You will be able to see the ticket on your UTS App