Sit in queue and book railway ticket to your gaon

Passenger Services Committee recommends chairs for people who stand for hours to book long-distance tickets at stations

Passenger Services Committee recommends chairs for people who stand for hours to book long-distance tickets at stationsu00a0

Tired of standing in queues to book railway tickets to your village or home town? Now, you may soon get to

COMMUTERS' WOEs: (Right) People stand in a queue for long hours to book tickets. FILE PIC

book tickets while seated in a queue. The Passenger Services Committee (PSC) has recommended the railway board to put up chairs along the queues for passengers.

The committee visited Mumbai last month to look at services provided to passengers. "For booking long distance train tickets, one has to stand in the queue for more than an hour. It becomes very difficult for old people who are forced to stand in the queue for fear of losing their place.

Keeping in mind their problems, we have sent a list of recommendations to the railway board to put chairs near the ticket window," said Rameshwar Prasad Gupta, a member of PSC.

It has been suggested that this be implemented at big stations like CST, Dadar, Thane, Kalyan, etc.

Commuters are obviously excited with the idea. Usha Srivastava, who regularly books tickets to Benaras from Dadar station, said, "This is a problem faced by every passenger. It takes so long to book tickets. Sometimes one spends more than two hours. Putting chairs near the ticket window will really help people."

Gupta said that if everything goes as planned, the stainless steel chairs will be put up by March. But
S Mudgerikar, chief PRO, CR, said, "We are yet to receive any such suggestion. If at all such suggestion is made, we will examine its feasibility and practicality."

Also on the list
The PSC has also recommended that food u00a0at railway stations cost less, as most passengers are from the middle or lower middle classes

Now, get receipts for cheques in drop box
Within a month, all railway stations will have an electronic bill box attached to the existing drop boxes that will give you an acknowledgement within a fraction of a second of depositing your cheques. Viraj Majmudar, promoter and founder, Minc Bill Box Private Limited, said, "It will increase public trust in the drop box system and will prove beneficial to people." A K Sharma, u00a0GRP Commissioner said, "It's a good idea." The cheques are cleared every 24 hours and are delivered to the companies on the same day.