Get your ticket at petrol pumps, ATMs

New Delhi: STD booths have mushroomed in every nook and corner. And Lalu Prasad promises to do the same for buying railway tickets.

The railways has already signed pacts with some banks for use of their teller machines and select petrol pumps for people to book tickets. It now plans to have similar tie-ups with state government e-seva kendras, cyber-cafes and even post offices and defence establishments. The railways hopes to have around four lakh ticketing vends across the country in the next two to three years.

It would also like to encourage people to book tickets online, a move that will help take touts out of the equation and scissor off expenses on railway staff and facilities. At present, around 35,000 e-tickets are issued daily, of which nearly 40% are for air-conditioned coaches. Those travelling in A/C coaches account for just 10% of the total passengers using trains. “The idea is to increase the ratio to 50:50, for which you need to give them access to the Internet,” said an official.

E-tickets apart, the coupon ticketing system introduced for suburban passengers in Mumbai has gained popularity. “We will try to introduce this system in Chennai and Kolkata also,” the railway minister said in his budget speech.

Lalu said that in order to make the scheme of monthly season ticket renewal through Internet popular, it has been decided to provide the service free of cost. In the next year, Central Railways will undertake a pilot project to issue tickets through multi-purpose smart cards. The scheme will be expanded if the pilot project succeeds, the minister said.