Railway Budget speech 2008-09: Full text

ON TRACK: Lalu Prasad presents Railway Budget 2008-09.

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14 Sir, rail passengers are our revered guests. ‘Atithi Devo Bhav’ has been a tradition in our country for centuries. Goddess Lakshmi has been exceptionally considerate on us during the last four years. We have brought about several important changes to make the travel experience of our guests pleasant, comfortable and secure, which I would like to share in brief with the august House.

Termination of long queues at ticket counters at stations in 2 years

The train journey begins with the purchase of a rail ticket. We have made a multi pronged strategy using information technology as the lever to permanently terminate these long queues within two years. Passengers would now be able to purchase railway tickets sitting at home on their computers, through mobile phones, through counters in their own neighbourhood or automatic ticket vending machines at stations. In the next two years, the number of UTS counters will be increased from 3000 to 15000 and automatic ticket vending machines from 250 to 6000. The Jansadharan Ticket Booking Seva will be extended to all Zonal Railways. This will provide employment to thousands of unemployed youth besides facilitating easy availability of Railway tickets in every neighbourhood. Presently, e-tickets are issued only against confirmed reservation. In line with the demand of passengers it has now been decided to extend the facility of e-ticket to waitlisted passengers also. With this the number of passengers traveling on e-tickets is expected to increase from one lakh to three lakhs in the next one year.

Booking of Rail Tickets through Mobile Phone

There is a phenomenal growth of mobile phones in our country, and presently about 30 crore mobile phones are available with the people of India. This number is expected to increase to 50 cr by the year 2010. We are therefore exploring the option of issuing reserved and unreserved rail tickets through mobile phones.

Rail ticket on “Go Mumbai Card” in Mumbai Suburban Service

The trial run for issuing rail ticket, monthly season ticket and platform ticket on Smart Card through Public Private Partnership has started on Central Railways Mumbai Suburban Service. This scheme will be commissioned by the end of next month. This multi-purpose card has been named “Go Mumbai Card” and sale of bus tickets of BEST on this card has already started. These cards will be sold at stations, bus depots of BEST and various locations in the city.

The Railways have neither commited capital investment in implementing this scheme nor will there be any extra burden on Railways or passengers for buying tickets. Only a marginal fee would be payable upon buying and recharging the card. This ticket distribution scheme will be extended to Western Railway and other suburban services after the success of the pilot project. All these measures will help in ending the long queues at counters.

Railway Enquiry Call Centre

Sir, when I had announced the setting up of fully computerised railway enquiry call centre without any cost to the Railways two years ago, some honourable Members had likened the proposal to Mungeri Lal ke hasin sapne.” I am happy that the dreams of Mungeri Lal have now become a reality.

This enquiry service is now available in the entire country on Telephone No. 139 which can be accessed at local call charge through all mobile and fixed line telephones. Presently this service is being used daily by 2 lakh persons and it is expected that this number will increase to 5 lakhs in a year’s time. Nonavailability of on-line information on arrival and departure of trains with these call centers is a cause for considerable inconvenience to the passengers. Therefore, we have decided to use modern IT and telecom technology to link the call centers with control office and NTES (National Train Enquiry System) on an on-line basis. This work will be completed by March 2009 to disseminate latest updated information about trains.