Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: In a significant move to assist passenger convenience, Indian Railways has introduced a new facility allowing commuters to start their journey from a station before their designated boarding point, provided the seat should be vacant.
As per a report by Dainik Bhasker, the service is initially rolled out in the Eastern Railway zone and is set to be implemented across other zones, like the West-Central Railway, staring from April onwards.
Under this system, passengers will be able to board the train from a station preceding their booked boarding station without having to incur any additional charges.
For instance, if a passenger has a confirmed ticket from Bina to Delhi but wishes to board from Bhopal, they can do so if the seat remains unoccupied before it reaches Bina.
As per the report, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM) Saurabh Kataria also confirmed that the Railway Board has issued instructions to General Managers of all railway zones to implement this system.
New Measures For Ticket Validation
Furthermore, new measures have been introduced for ticket validation, as well. If a passenger is unable to meet the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) at their designated boarding station, their seat will be allotted to another passenger on the Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) list and their ticket will be cancelled.
According to the new measures, the TTE will mark absent passengers through a handheld terminal device, which will automatically relocate the vacant seat to the next waiting passenger. Before the reallocation, a message will be sent to the original ticket holder to alert them.
Passengers Will Now Be Able To Pay Fines Digitally
Additionally, passengers travelling without a valid ticket will now be able to pay their penalty/fines via QR codes on the TTE's handheld device. These measures have to introduced to reduce ticket fraud and streamline operations for an effortless journey.
