South Central Railway on right track as ticket checking in trains goes hi-tech

Hyderabad: The on-board ticket checking in trains has now gone Hi-tech with the South Central Railway starting on-board ticket checking with Hand-Held Terminals (HHTs) for live vacancy status on berths availability.

Taking inspiration from the Digital India Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the SCR authorities have taken up initiative to implement the use of high-end technology-based Hand-Held Terminals (HHTs) on-board the trains.

According to the officials, the HHTs would enable the ticket checking staff to verify status of reserved passengers list of the entire train, get to know the live status of vacant berths and allot the vacant berths between identified destinations to passengers in a wholly transparent manner.

The HHTs has been recently introduced on Indian Railways to cater to 51 Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains and SCR is one amongst the identified Zones to implement this computer based passenger centric project on a pilot basis. Under this project, 40 HHTs have been provided to the ticket checking staff (TCs) on SCR, who work by the select trains.

The HHTs would help checking and monitoring the live vacancy status aboard the train. The Secunderabad Divisional Railway Manager Amit Varadan handed over the first set of HTT instruments to Ticket checking staff (TCs) on-duty by Train No 12026/12025 Secunderabad - Pune - Secunderabad Shatabdi Express at Secunderabad Railway Station on Thursday. 

The HHTs would be available with the TC staff in the following trains which originate/terminate/pass through the South Central Railway. In 12025/12026 Pune - Secunderabad - Pune Shatabdi Express, 12437/12438 Secunderabad - Hazrat Nizamuddin - Secunderabad Rajdhani Express, 12433/12434 Chennai Central - Hazrat Nizamuddin - Chennai Central Rajdhani Express, 22691/22692 KSR Bengaluru - Hazrat Nizamuddin - KSR Bengaluru Rajdhani Express.

Real-time charting will ensure greater transparency in allotment of berths, especially in case of vacant accommodation. The facility to enable live updates of passenger occupancy on train will ease upgrading/downgrading of reserved accommodation already booked. Communication between TCs of different coaches aboard the trains to clear RAC would be easy and quick.

Communication by TCs with Station staff will become easier in case of any requirement by passengers in coaches. An eco-friendly move, the Hand-Held Terminals will replace paper charts presently used by TCs on-board.