NEW DELHI: In a major policy change, Railways will soon prepare reservation chart (of confirmed berths/seats) eight hours before scheduled departure of trains instead of the present four hours. To facilitate passenger convenience, for trains departing before 2pm, the reservation chart will be prepared at 9pm the previous evening.
Railway Board proposed the changes last week and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed their implementation "in a phased manner so that there is no disruption". The board will come up with the roll out plan soon.
In an official statement, the ministry said the current practice of preparing reservation charts four hours before train departure creates uncertainty in the minds of passengers. The new timeline will greatly help them with waitlisted tickets. They will get the first update on waitlist status well in advance. It will especially benefit passengers travelling from remote locations or suburbs of major cities to catch long distance trains. It will also provide more time to make alternative arrangements in case the waitlisted ticket is not confirmed, the statement said.
In another passenger-friendly move, the railways announced complete revamp of passenger reservation system (PRS) by Dec. The new PRS will allow over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute, around five times more than the current capacity of 32,000 tickets per minute.
Under the new PRS, ticket inquiry capacity will increase 10-fold - from 4 lakh to over 40 lakh enquiries per minute. The system will also have a multilingual and user-friendly booking and inquiry interface. The decisions were made at a review meeting chaired by Vaishnaw last week. Officials said the project has been under execution by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) over the last few months.
"In the new PRS, users will be able to submit their choice of seat and see the fare calendar," said an official. On July 1, the national transporter will roll out mandatory authentication of users for booking Tatkal tickets on the IRCTC website and mobile app.
Railway Board proposed the changes last week and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed their implementation "in a phased manner so that there is no disruption". The board will come up with the roll out plan soon.
In an official statement, the ministry said the current practice of preparing reservation charts four hours before train departure creates uncertainty in the minds of passengers. The new timeline will greatly help them with waitlisted tickets. They will get the first update on waitlist status well in advance. It will especially benefit passengers travelling from remote locations or suburbs of major cities to catch long distance trains. It will also provide more time to make alternative arrangements in case the waitlisted ticket is not confirmed, the statement said.
In another passenger-friendly move, the railways announced complete revamp of passenger reservation system (PRS) by Dec. The new PRS will allow over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute, around five times more than the current capacity of 32,000 tickets per minute.
Under the new PRS, ticket inquiry capacity will increase 10-fold - from 4 lakh to over 40 lakh enquiries per minute. The system will also have a multilingual and user-friendly booking and inquiry interface. The decisions were made at a review meeting chaired by Vaishnaw last week. Officials said the project has been under execution by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) over the last few months.
"In the new PRS, users will be able to submit their choice of seat and see the fare calendar," said an official. On July 1, the national transporter will roll out mandatory authentication of users for booking Tatkal tickets on the IRCTC website and mobile app.
You may also like
Idaho shooting: Chilling audio reveals chaos as two firefighters killed; 'everybody's shot up here'
Inside Alexander Zverev's relationship with famous girlfriend who has seven-year age gap
Wimbledon's rare heat rule to be used on opening day as temperature soars to 34C
Plumbing the profound with perspicacious poetics (Book Review)
Lions star OUT of Australia tour after being injured while scoring with replacement named
