The Railways will now outsource booking of tickets through the Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra’s to be set up and operated by private players.
“However, the tickets purchased at these counters will be of different colour, may be red. Only general quota tickets will be sold,” a railway official told Deccan Herald.
These counters will charge Rs 30 and Rs 40 per passenger for sleeper and AC classes respectively. Service charge of Re 1 per passenger will be charged for unreserved tickets.
The counters will remain open from 9 am-10 pm from Monday to Saturday and 9 am-8 pm on Sunday. For cancellation, the service charge will be 50 per cent of the amount charged for booking the ticket.
However, these counters will not be permitted to book tickets against Defence Department and Foreign Tourist quota.
Concession vouchers, including those that are availed by freedom fighters, MPs and MLAs, cannot be used to book tickets at these counters.
The booking hours for Tatkal Tickets will start from 11 am.
The terminals, computers, ticket printers, modems and other apparatus have to be purchased by the private players from the railways or they can put it up on their own.
The railways, however, will supply ticket rolls free of cost. Loss or disfiguring of a ticket will invite heavy penalties.
The private parties will share 25 per cent of the service charge earned from reserved tickets with the railways. The revenue earnings from unreserved tickets will remain with them.
The railways is denying the charge that the move is a kind of privatisation of the services.