Expanding its e-ticketing business further, the railway ministry has now introduced online booking for waitlisted tickets as well. The service however has been launched as a pilot scheme and is available only for the Mumbai- New Delhi Rajdhani train.
Rail Bhawan sources said if all goes well with the pilot project – it does not suffer any technical glitches and is received by the public well-the scheme will be gradually expanded to all trains. Earlier only reserved railway tickets could be booked electronically.
Under the new scheme, waitlisted e-tickets on getting reserved would appear in the reservation charts on trains. If they do not get reserved, railways would arrange for an electronic refund to the customer or ticket agent. In this case, the money would automatically get credited into their account.
The software for the service has been developed by CRIS and the pilot project is being run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
?E-ticketing of waitlisted tickets will not only increase the convenience to passengers but will also shorten queues at railway ticket counters,? a railway official said. There was a huge demand from passengers for the service to be extended to waitlisted tickets also, he added.
Online booking of reserved rail tickets has alreadybecome very successful with over a lakh such tickets booked every year.