E-ticketing for foreign tourists, NRIs

Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, presented the Railway Budget 2016, and announced that in the next three months, Railways will open the e-ticketing facility to foreign debit/credit cards for foreign tourists and NRIs. In order to ensure hassle free travel for passengers bar coded tickets, scanners and access control on a pilot basis on major stations will be introduced to tackle the menace of ticketless travel. While there will be no hike in passenger fare, the budget entailed many new initiatives for the passengers. Prabhu said that Indian Railways intends to commence sale of tickets through hand held terminals for the benefit of the suburban and short distance travellers. IRCTC will also be extending e-catering services from existing 45 large stations to all 408 ‘A-1’ and ‘A’ class stations. It will also explore the possibility of making mandatory catering services optional in trains. Local cuisine of choice will be made available to passengers. Clean my Coach service on pan India basis is introduced, where a passenger can request cleaning of his/her coach/toilets on demand through SMS. The minister has also set a target of 30000 bio-toilets in the next financial year.