With this machine, print your train ticket in seconds

With the development of technology, things have been made readily available to society. This is applicable to most sectors of the society.

To reduce long queues at booking counters, the railways are installing 50 wall-mounted kiosks at prominent suburban stations of the city for printing local tickets or passes booked through mobile phone by using UTS App. A senior railway official said this application will allow commuters to book all types of local train tickets, including season tickets, through their mobile phones in18 seconds.

Earlier, commuters used to book a ticket on a mobile phone and then had to get print out either through the automatic ticket vending machine (ATVM) or had to wait at the booking counter. “The new facility will make it easier for the commuters to book and use tickets online. It will also allow commuters to easily book all types of local train tickets, including season tickets, through their mobile phones. The commuters can then take a printout of their tickets through wall-mounted kiosks in just 18 seconds,” said a senior railway officer.

According to the CR official, commuters can retrieve their season ticket in case of any loss through the mobile ticketing system. “Booking ticket through UTS App will be easy to regenerate a lost ticket using the IMEI number of the concerned mobile,” said railway official.

“Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has already provided 25 such wall-mounted kiosks to each Central Railway and Western Railway,” said Uday Bobhate, General Manager, CRIS.

Now, a commuter can simply open the SMS received after booking and place his/her mobile on the kiosk and print the ticket. “We have already installed two kiosks at CSMT on a trial basis and process and the process of installing the remaining 23 kiosks is underway. Each of these kiosks costs Rs 1.20 lakh,” said SK Jain, divisional railway manager of Central Railway Mumbai division.

“We have received the kiosks. Six of the 25 kiosks will be installed at each Churchgate and Dadar, five each at Borivali and Andheri and three at Bandra,” said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Western Railway, Mumbai Central division.

Besides, the process will also help in retrieving lost ticket, which is now considered as a lengthy process.

Here’s how to use the app:

1. UTS App has two options — ‘Book and Travel’ and ‘Book and Print’ option
2. Under ‘Book and Travel’ option, the ticket is saved in the app and the same can be shown to the TTE.
3. In the ‘Book and Print’ option, a commuter has to necessarily have a hard copy of the ticket. Until now, a passenger can print his ticket after going through a complicated process on the ATVM or from the counter.
4. With the new facility, a passenger can simply open the SMS received after booking and place their smartphones on the kiosk and print the ticket.
5. However, if there is any technical glitch, a commuter can manually feed booking details in automatic ticket vending machines and get a printout.

These high-tech machines are estimated at a cost of Rs 1.20 lakh. Currently, 65% of the 78 lakh commuters in Mumbai use season tickets.