The Indian Railways e-ticketing scheme, launched with an aim of making train ticket reservations an easier and quicker task, seems to be struggling to pick up in an appreciable way despite a lapse of more than a month since its launch.
A predominant number of passengers travelling by the two New Delhi-bound Shatabdi Express trains are still found using the regular hard-paper ticket. Out of an average 1,000 passengers boarding these two trains at Kalka and Chandigarh daily, only about five travel with e-tickets, said ticket reservation officials at the Chandigarh Railway Station.
The three major reasons attributed to the lukewarm response this service has been getting so far are that the railways have not done enough publicity for it, passengers are yet to break their strong dependence on travel agents and a general lack of knowledge of internet usage among most passengers.
The service was launched on August 12, on a pilot basis on the Shatabdi Express trains between Delhi and Kalka via Chandigarh, to enable passengers board the trains with a computer printout obtained from their personal computers. While e-ticketing is quite on the lines of Internet booking, it charges between Rs 40 and Rs 60 as transaction fee for each ticket. This extra charge is also what prevents many passengers from using e-tickets.
E-ticketing is a futuristic service aimed at the educated and technology-savvy people. It is too early to judge the performance of this service because still many people do not have access to internet, Ambala Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) R.K. Tandon told Newsline.
Northern Railway CPRO Rajeev Saxena said: This is just one of the options available to the passengers. The new service is expected to pick up fast as people become more internet friendly in coming times. Both the railways and the IRCTC are doing enough advertising for it.
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