Railways should change boarding rules

The recent move by the Ministry of Railways to introduce hand-held terms to TTEs to allocate berths is welcome. In an age of rapid technological development, advanced changes implemented in the Indian Railway's computerized reservation system is highly appreciated, especially if it is an environment friendly move. The Railways now should not waste much time and quickly implement such a system to allocate RAC/Waitlisted passengers automatically across all the categories of trains for the booked tickets.

Further the Railway Board is suggested to do away another archaic rule which has no essence in today's busy world. The online booking system and an offline mechanism allows a reserved ticket holder to change the boarding point only 24 hours prior to the departure of the train. Such a rule now holds no value as it is not practically possible to make a decision just within 24 hours prior to the departure of a train, to change the boarding point from the original station. Such a decision needs at least 6 to 12 hours maximum time than the existing 24 hours rule. Many passengers especially who travel for business and on official purpose find such a rule infeasible - and it is hard for any passenger to make a decision within a day to change the boarding point.

Hence the concerned Ministry of Railways and the Railway Board is suggested to look into advancing the maximum time required to change the boarding point from the existing 24 hours to at least 6 to 12 hours prior to departure of the train. Such a move will certainly give benefit of doubt to the passengers and enable them to take a judicious decision to board at selected destination within short notice of the train's original departure time.

- Varun Dambal, Bengaluru