Daisy
Patna : Railway portal www.indianrail.gov.in is successfully coping with huge pressure of online ticket booking system at the country level. The portal, which was earlier launched on a trial basis, has become regular now evoking good response from the people and has taken pressure off from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the sole agency so far for booking online e-tickets.
A Railway Board official said this facility is not available to travel agents . It is exclusively for individual users who can asily book their e-tickets in advance through this railway site. The individual users are required to register themselves for using the railway site , he said. Besides e-ticket booking , railways has introduced facilities like booking retiring room, taxi and cloak room through this site in advance. Railways is eager to provide all kinds of facilities to passengers online before they start their journey , he added.
The official said the railways launched this portal following frequent complaints about non-availability of the site during peak time . The new portal has the provision for internet reservation which is smooth for the common people, he said adding the alleged malpractice and irregularities in issuing e-tickets to people on the IRCTC portal has been a major concern for railways in maintaining transparency in e-ticket booking. According to sources , it has been noticed that a large number of people have been booking their journey tickets through IRCTC portal daily across the country. The new site, which has received an overwhelming response from computer savvy people, has been able to facilitate people to access the IRCTC site through the new portal also, sources said.
About 40 % of rail ticket bookings are made by the IRCTC. Railways is keen to provide multiple choice to passengers to book their journey tickets in advance or just before their journey. The Centre for Railway Information System ( CRIS ) has been providing assistance to railways in making the online ticket booking system easy and foolproof through its own portal , sources said. To redress passenger grievances fast, railways has launched a separate cell at the Board level to register complaints about poor quality of meals or any other complaints related to passengers’ journey. Senior railway officials are looking into passengers’ grievances on priority basis, sources said .