The
Railway Minister today declared that the year 2006 will be the year of
passenger service with a smile. To this
end, Shri Lalu Prasad has announced a strategy to shrink long queues in booking
counters and improvement and provision of modern facilities for
passengers. To encourage more persons
to avail of i-ticket and e-ticket, the charges leviable on e-tickets have been
reduced by Rs. 20 per ticket in higher classes and Rs. 15 per ticket in sleeper
class. Passengers can buy i-ticket and
e-ticket through Rail Travel Service Agents also.
In
a new endeavour, the Railways is to introduce a pilot project to install 200
automatic ticket vending machines in Mumbai suburban area of Central and
Western Railways. These machines will
be connected with the UTS and will dispense tickets automatically through smart
cards.
By
end of the current year, the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be
operational in all 1310 centres and 425 UTS centres.
To
make unreserved tickets available, Railway have formulated a Jansadharan Ticket
Booking Scheme. Under this scheme
pre-paid UTS counters will be made available to unemployed youth.
Under
the Gramin Ticket Booking Service agency, will be given at roadside stations to
unemployed rural youth for issuing tickets.
These two schemes for unemployed youths will be in identified stations
on pilot basis.
To
further improve passenger amenities for the 1.60 crore passengers who use the
Indian Railways everyday, the Minister announced that funds will not be a
constraint. To begin with all A and B
category stations are to be developed as stations with modern passenger
amenities. Modern facilities such as
ATMs, Cyber Cafes etc. will be provided at all major stations speedily. A pilot project to upgrade retiring rooms,
waiting rooms, station buildings and lavatories under public-private
partnership is on. This is to be
expanded.
The
Railway Minister also announced rationalization of passenger and freight tariff
structures AC first class and AC second class fares have been reduced by 18 per
cent and 10 per cent respectively with a view to sharpen the competitive edge
of the Railways. The Minister also
announced a fully air conditioned Garib Rath to be run on a pilot project basis
between Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Saharasa-Amritsar. The fares on these trains will be about 25
per cent lower than the present AC-3 tier fares.
The LHB design passenger coaches
currently used in the Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express and Mumbai-New Delhi
Rajdhani will be extended to the Patna and Sealdah Rajdhani and some more
Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.
World-class passenger amenities and interiors are to be provided in four
popular trains: Hazrat Nizamuddin-Gwalior Taj Express, New Delhi-Patna Sampoorn
Kranti Express, Chennai Bangalore Vrindavan Express and New Delhi-Barauni
Vaishali Express.
IRCTC
has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing all passenger amenities
in Mail and Express passenger trains.
The Corporation will award license through open bidding to provide all
services including catering, bedroll and maintain cleanliness of trains and
toilets.
The
Railways is to run 150 kilometer per hour passenger train on the Delhi-Kanpur
Lucknow route. Trains at such speed
have already started running in Delhi-Agra Section, which is now covered in
just one hour 56 minutes.
EK/IKC/HCK/AS