The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has an option to book season tickets on its website. This, however, wasn't used to its full extent even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts want this system to be kickstarted, as IRCTC has a wide base and it could be linked to the proposed application for suburban train tickets.
The IRCTC website had a separate link to book suburban season passes, which could be used by registered users. “The IRCTC website is a centralised system. The state government and railways should work on utilising the season pass option on it,” said Kailash Verma, member, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.
Rather than developing an application, passenger associations feel that the existing system should be utilised. “The condition to allow only those who are fully vaccinated should not be the sole condition. The authorities could explore the existing system like the mobile ticketing application and/or issuing season passes on the IRCTC website,” said Mansoor Darvesh, activist.
The IRCTC officials said that they need clarity from the state government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “At present, we have disabled the system to issue season passes on the website. Orders to enable it haven’t come in yet. We will work out the modalities in the coming days on how it could be linked to the QR-coded ID cards,” said an official from IRCTC.
Clarity is also needed on the renewal of passes and the QR code concept, amongst others. “Currently, a higher number of ticketless travelling cases is being recorded. When the QR code is not generated, commuters who do not get tickets would prefer to go ahead with ticketless travelling. We are talking to all the stakeholders about the access control modalities and are working in consultation with the railways and the Railway Protection Force (RPF),” said a GRP official, on the condition of anonymity.
