New Delhi: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said advance reservation period has been extended from 60 days at present to 120 days to check the rising menace of touts.
Advacing the reservation period once again to 120 days will discourage the touts as it involves more cancellation charges, Member Traffic Ajay Shukla said. Prabhu also announced introduction of ‘operation five minutes’ scheme under which ticketless passengers can get regular tickets within five minutes of entering station.
The Minister said provision of modified ‘hot buttons’, coin vending machines and ‘single destination teller windows’ will drastically reduce the transaction time. For the differently-abled travellers, a special initiative is also being launched whereby they can purchase concessional e-tickets after one-time registration.
The Minister said, “We will move towards crediting all refunds through the banking system.” Noting that in Central, Western and Southern Railway suburban sections, a pilot project of issuing unreserved tickets on smart phones has already been started, he said the facility will be progressively introduced to all stations.
