With the budgetary allotment of Rs 2.41 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-24, the railways have planned to boost its infrastructure and enhance the passenger experience. The allocation is about nine times the outlay made since 2013-14. In this context, Indian Railways will upgrade its ticket-issuing capacity to 2.25 lakh per minute. Presently, the railways issued 25,000 tickets in a minute. The national transporter has also targeted to attend enquiries from 40,000 to four lakh per minute.
For this new initiative, the railways have to improve the back-end infrastructure of the Passenger Reservation System (PRS). Speaking at a presser on Friday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “there will be 10 times improvement in terms of software and hardware.”
Jan Suvidha stores
The railways also planned to open ‘Jan Suvidha’ stores at 2,000 railway stations across India. The stores will remain open round-the-clock. “Like the system in Europe and Japan, here also the passengers can purchase day-to-day items from these stores,” the minister added.
Curbing e-ticket malpractices
The railways have also taken several measures to curb e-ticketing malpractices. The move aims at fast, safe, and transparent e-Ticketing.
Laying of tracks
In FY 2023-24, the Ministry of Railways is also focusing to boost connectivity to the remotest part of the country. For this, the laying of the track is most important. The ministry has set a target to lay tracks for a distance of 7,000 km in the next fiscal. This includes new lines, doubling, tripling, gauge conversion, etc.
In the financial year 2022-23, the railways achieved the target of laying railway tracks for a distance of 4,500 km (12 km per day).
One Station One Product (OSOP) scheme
Under the One Station One Product (OSOP) scheme, the railways will open outlets at 200 stations across the country. In 2022-23, 594 outlets at 550 stations have been opened.