Kharge launches rail ticket booking by calls, SMSes

Railways on Friday introduced a ticketing service through calls and text messages from mobile phones.

Launching the facility, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that the service is more conducive for the masses of India because access to internet in the country is limited to 10 per cent of the population, but 80 per cent of the population has access to mobile phones.
“Online booking now constitutes 45 per cent of all forms of rail ticket booking.

The new facility will help further decrease ticketing through counters. This facility will help migrant labourers purchase tickets without taking leave from work,” Kharge asserted.
The service, which is looked after by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), has been launched on a pilot basis for three months. During this period no agent charges would be levied for availing of the facility.

“We are working on enhancing the capacity of the computer server being used for ticketing. We will segregate rail enquiry and other information from ticketing, and a dedicated server will be set up for ticketing alone,” the managing director of IRCTC told Deccan Herald.
The new service can be availed through four avenues. The Unstructured Data Service call can be made from an Airtel number using the Airtel Money facility.

The call is to be made by dialling *400#. Booking may be done by sending journey details through SMS to 139.