After doubling up as a camera and music player, the increasingly versatile mobile phone could soon take on a whole new avatar: railway ticket. Indeed, according to a Rail Bhavan proposal, the next time the railway TC comes a-checking, all you might need is to do is show him an SMS.
The railway ministry proposal would allow passengers to not only book and buy tickets via their cellphone?which you can do already?but the confirmation SMS would also serve as a sort of e-ticket, thereby completely doing away with paper tickets. The service will, however, only be available for unreserved seats.
?We have received this proposal from ICICI Bank. We are currently looking into it and will take a decision soon,? said a Rail Bhavan official. If accepted, the service might also be extended to reserved seats at a later date. Passengers would have to download a small application on their mobile phone and payments would be made through credit cards.
For the railways, the proposal may just be what it was looking for to shorten those long queues at reservation counters, particularly during the summer holidays. It would serve a sizeable part of the 12 million people who travel on unreserved tickets every day. The only shortcoming: its reach might be somewhat limited as cellphone connectivity is still not very high.
The proposal is, however, in line with the ministry?s plan to improve passenger amenities by providing ?rail tickets at the doorstep? and cutting down on ticket queues. It has already tied up with a number of banks, the department of posts & telegraphs, oil company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Internet service provider Sify for the sale of its tickets.