MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a)to(c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2488 BY SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE, SHRI DHANANJAY MAHADIK, SHRI RAVINDRA KUMAR PANDEY, SHRI MOHITE PATIL VIJAYSINH SHANKARRAO, SHRI RAKESH SINGH AND DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 08.12.2014 REGARDING PPP IN RESERVATION SYSTEM
(a) and (b): Yes, Madam. A New Generation e-ticketing (NGeT) system has been launched which has capacity to book 7200 tickets per minutes. It supports 1.2 lakh concurrent users at any point in time. NGeT system has been designed for faster booking of online reserved tickets. The new system has mitigated the complaints about non/slow availability of website for booking of online Tatkal/Advance Reservation Period (ARP) tickets. Moreover, with the expansion of PRS, the total number of PRS locations on Indian Railways has now become close to 3200. It has made easy access for securing reservation from the reservation offices.
Further, with a view to expanding the facilities for issue of tickets (both reserved and unreserved), Ministry of Railways have decided to allow public private partnership in establishment and operation of computerised Passenger Reservation System(PRS)-cum Unreserved Ticketing System(UTS) terminals at centres which shall be called Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK). As per this scheme, all the authorised ticketing agents, who have worked for at least five years in providing railway ticketing (reserved/ unreserved) services for passengers of Indian Railways are eligible to become YTSK licensee. Under the revenue sharing scheme, such YTSK licensees will share 25% of the commission earned by them from sale of railway tickets, with the Railways.
(c): Certain instances of misuse of computerised Passenger Reservation System by some unscrupulous elements were reported in past. With a view to simplifying the Passenger Reservation System and to keep a check on the misuse of general reservation and the Tatkal reservation scheme, various steps have been taken by the Railways, some of which are as under:-
(i) The condition of production of prescribed proof of identity during the journey by any one of the passenger booked on a ticket has been made mandatory. In case of Tatkal tickets the original proof of identity as indicated in the ticket is required to be carried. In case of non production of prescribed proof of identity in original, all the passengers booked on the ticket are treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly.
(ii) With a view to reduce chances of misuse of Tatkal scheme various provisions of Tatkal scheme have been modified, which are as under:-
The timings of opening of booking of reservation under Tatkal Scheme and general scheme have been staggered to 1000 hours and 0800 hours respectively.
Advance Reservation Period of Tatkal scheme has been reduced to one day excluding the day of journey.
Refunds are not granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets except in case of special circumstances like late running of train by more than three hours, cancellation of trains, etc.
Duplicate Tatkal tickets are not issued under normal circumstances. In exceptional cases, Duplicate Tatkal tickets can be issued on payment of full fare including Tatkal charges.
At the computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters, Tatkal tickets are issued only on production of self attested photocopy of one of the prescribed proofs of Identity mentioned in the scheme. While booking an e-ticket, the passenger has to submit the number of the identity card on which he proposes to travel.
A restriction of booking of a maximum of four passengers per PNR on Tatkal ticket has been imposed.
Web service agents have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day on internet and only after 1200 hours.
(iii) With a view to protect the interest of individual users, access to Tatkal booking and normal booking on the opening day of reservation through e-tickets by the Travel Agents/Web-service agents/Web Agents of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), has been disabled between 0800 hours and 1200 hours.
(iv) Closed Circuit Television cameras have also been installed at major stations/ reservation offices to keep an eye on the activities of anti-social & unscrupulous elements indulging in malpractices in reservation.
(v) Instructions have been issued for keeping a watch on the counters handling abnormally high number of requisitions particularly during opening hours of reservation.
(vi) Concept of “Captcha” has been introduced in computerised PRS so that booking clerk cannot make use of the input string in advance.
(vii) To educate the passengers, frequent announcements are made through the Public Address System at Railway stations advising passengers to purchase tickets only from booking counters of the station or from the authorized ticket counters.
(viii) Regular/surprise checks are conducted by the Commercial Department of Railways in association with Security/Vigilance Department, at Reservation/Booking offices, platforms and in the trains also.
(ix) Instructions have also been issued to all zonal Railways that Sr.DCMs/DCMs should conduct regular inspections of Reservation offices and also personally inspect PRS offices during the opening hours and take immediate steps to check the touting activities.
(x) Besides, efforts are made to curb touting by bridging the gap between demand and supply of accommodation through running of holiday special trains during the peak rush periods, putting on extra coaches to meet the day-to-day requirements and increasing the number of coaches on permanent basis in those trains which have high demand and patronage.
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