Indian Railways planning to stop printing tickets

Indian Railways may soon end printing tickets in the country. As per the Railway officials, a file has been moved asking to replace the printed ticket with an SMS. Currently, an SMS facility is available only for e-tickets.

A per the report, Indian Railway is planning to purchase premium services for the delivery of messages – commuters will receive an instant message the moment booking details are punched into the Passengers Reservation System (PSR) installed at the railway booking counters.

Further, the reservation charts pasted on train coaches and printers used to print tickets will be also phased out in a limited time frame.

The SMS might include an advertisement with the booking confirmation send over a mobile in order to bring down the costs occurred to national transporters. Indian railways are already in talks with advertising agencies in this regard.

In the case of passengers not having a mobile phone will get printed tickets on request. Officials said that very less percentage of e-ticket booking commuters now carry print tickets. Therefore, they are expecting a positive response from consumers.

As a fact, if Indian railways stop printing tickets, this public transport system can save 1200 tons of paper per year.

Source: The Indian Express