Prabhu announces scheme for reserved berths for travellers
THE SCHEME AIMS TO PROVIDE RESERVED BERTHS TO WAITLISTED PASSENGERS IN AN ALTERNATIVE TRAIN RUNNING ON THE SAME ROUTE WITHIN 12 HOURS
An ambitious plan aimed at providing confirmed berths to all train travelers was announced by Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday.
Called the “Vikalp”, or the alternative train accommodation system (ATAS), the scheme aims to provide reserved berths to wait-listed passengers in an alternative train running on the same route within 12 hours, without any difference of fare or extra charges.
The expanded scheme will be effective from April 1 and will be available on e-tickets to start with, but will be extended to Passenger Reservation Service (PRS) tickets as well.
So far, the scheme was available on six routes including Delhi-Lucknow, Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Chennai.
Reserved accommodation being a perishable commodity, potential revenue is lost to railways each time a train leaves the platform with a vacant seat/ berth.
The rationale of the scheme is to optimize berth utilization across all trains; thereby increasing earnings on the one hand, while reducing refunds on wait listed tickets as well.
But there is a caveat to the plan: Alternative berths will depend on the availability of vacant seats in another train.
In the over-crowded network of the Indian Railways – where passengers are packed like sardines in compartments of most passenger trains – the possibility of finding reserved berths in alternative trains appear remote.
The scheme has other flaws. A waitlisted passenger on the Delhi-Howrah Duronto (journey time of 17.15 hours), for instance, might end up spending 41 hours for the same journey in case of finding an alternative berth on the Delhi-Sealdah Express.
Also, a passenger who opts to cancel his ticket for an alternative train travel will be levied cancellation charges on the basis of a confirmed status — which are much higher as compared to the refund on waitlisted tickets.
However, a reverse scenario can also come true for lucky passengers once in a while — with a wait-listed passenger on the Shaheed Express finding an alternative berth once in a while on the faster Duronto trains, for example.
Unconfirmed tickets have been a constant grudge with passengers wanting to travel on the Indian Railways, which carries 23 million passengers each day, a number equal to the population of Australia. But can the “Vikalp” address these problems?
Smart traffic management plans can help, but unless infrastructural constraints are removed, lasting solutions cannot come”, an official said on the condition of anonymity.