Information on ticket reservation is pass?. From August, you can use a railways call centre to hire a cab to reach your hotel from the station. Four call centres, to be rolled out by the railways soon, will provide this facility.
Routine information like the status of tickets and train schedules will also be available by dialling 139. The railways are planning to flag off the first call centre at Noida by the end of this month. This centre will serve the northern region.
The trial run of the call centre is already over. Call centres for the western and southern regions, in Ahmedabad and Mysore, will get off the ground soon after the one in Noida comes into being.
These centres will offer three kinds of services?basic, premium and value-added. Local call rates will be charged for accessing the basic services that will include enquiries about train bookings and schedules.
The premium services will be for enquiries about the availability of tatkal (emergency) tickets, trains between stations, concessions, cancellations and refunds. SMS alerts will also be offered.
The value-added services will offer car and hotel bookings. Call charges for the premium and value-added services will be about Rs 6 or more.
The call centres will be managed by a consortium of three companies?Spanco Telesystems, Stracon and BSNL. Spanco will work on a revenue-sharing basis and earn 25% on every call made. It is estimated that the project could generate high revenue, given the fact that about 13 million Indians travel by train every day.
In the first phase of operation, the call centres are likely to employ 2,000 people. The Noida centre is estimated to have a 600-
strong staff.
Indian Railways Tourism and Catering Corporation is also planning to set up a call centre to monitor and take more calls.