Seamless wi-fi system for smooth rail ticket booking soon
The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has now decided to install a new Wi-Fi system to help commuters book tickets using a mobile application seamlessly without facing any connectivity issues.
This system would be connected to the main server of the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) application that will be installed at the entrance of every railway stations on both Central and Western line.
The plan of installing the system is in process and would take at least six months. The number of systems to be installed would be decided after the Wi-Fi system is fully integrated.
Once the new system is installed, railway commuters can validate their railway tickets after pressing a button to confirm it. At present, the commuters are facing connectivity issues while booking a railway ticket from the UTS application.
“The UTS application was introduced in the railways as a part of the cashless transaction system. This application helped the commuters avoid long queues at booking offices.
Recently, we received many complaints from the commuters who said that that they faced connectivity issues while booking the ticket at crowded places and inside a moving car,” said Uday Bhobhate, General Manager of the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).
The UTS mobile application was introduced for the railway commuters so that they can carry the tickets on their smartphones taking a printout or the actual ticket. The commuters have to be within 30 metres to 2 kilometer from the originating station in order to book the tickets from the application.
The fare money is deducted from their railway wallet after the name of the destination is fed on to the application.
In this process, commuters faced problems due to weak signal strength of their mobile service providers.
“Due to weak signal strength, I was not able to book the railway ticket. On several occasions. I was caught once by the ticket collector as I did not have an image of my railway ticket though I have actually taken the ticket,” said Devashree Rao, a user of UTS application.