Dial Railways, get your SMS text ticket: Lalu’s new plan

Imagine picking up your mobile phone, dialing a number, keying in travel details responding to an interactive voice...

Imagine picking up your mobile phone, dialing a number, keying in travel details responding to an interactive voice response system and getting your ticket to travel anywhere on the Indian Railways network in the form of an SMS on your cellphone. The Railways Ministry is at an advanced stage of negotiations with several mobile service providers and this could be one of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s big-ticket ideas in the forthcoming Rail Budget.

There is already a pilot project which allows users to book tickets via their cellphones but the tickets have to be physically delivered at the user’s address.

Now the idea is to deliver the ticket on the cellphone itself in the form of an SMS. “And a passenger would merely need to show this SMS to board and travel on the train,” a senior ministry official told The Indian Express. “For postpaid mobile subscribers, the cost of the ticket will reflect in their monthly bills while it would be deducted at the time of transaction in case of prepaid subscribers,” the official added.

Under the arrangement being worked out, selected mobile service providers will be allowed to link their systems to the Railways’ ticketing systems .

Users will dial a designated number and interactive voice response systems will guide them. The ticket will be generated electronically and delivered in the form of an SMS. To prevent misuse, it will be ensured that one cannot edit or forward this SMS. The mobile company will have to guarantee security of the transaction.

While mobile companies want to levy a charge of Rs 1.20 per minute per ticket for AC classes and 30-50 paise for unreserved tickets, the Ministry wants the unreserved category — its largest clientele — to be free or charged 15 paise.