Railway introduces hand-held terminals

The Indian Railway on Friday introduced Hand Held Terminals (HHT) to ticket checking staff as part of the national transporter effort to introduce digital initiatives.

The first such HHT was introduced in Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani, where all the ticket checking staffs were provided with latest gadget.

The HHT, with the size of iPad, will be loaded with passenger reservation chart. Since it is connected with central server of passenger reservation system periodically through GPRS, in each stations where the train stop, the details of booking of tickets updated.

"Passengers with Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) or waiting list ticket can check with the HHT about the availability of vacant berths on real time basis. This will also bring transparency and end corruption in allotting berths for RAC or waiting list passengers on running trains," said an official in the Railway.

The HHT can also used for collecting excess fare, penalty and other charges from passengers and issuing the receipt for the same to them.

"The HHT will end the on board ticket checking staff carrying printed reservation chart," said the official.

"A project to introduce HHTs on Indian Railways for computerised on board ticket checking and allotment of vacant berths has been conceptualised and tested and is ready for roll out on all India basis," the circular said.