Long Queues No More: Receive Your Mumbai Local Tickets via SMS
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The Centre For Railway Information System (CRIS), the information technology arm of the Indian Railways, is working on mobile ticketing for Mumbai’s 65 lakh daily suburban commuters. CRIS has already begun field trials for the system and will be ready with the system by March 2009.
“The project will be implemented for suburban and unreserved tickets for outstation trains. There will be no human interaction. Commuters can simply call a number or send an SMS to it for a ticket. The ticket will be sent to the commuter via SMS on his or her cellphone. It will be charged to the cellphone service provider and the amount will be included in the commuter’s phone bill,” said a senior railway official, asking not to be identified. “If you have a high-end Java-enabled phone, you could view the ticket as an image. Otherwise, it will be in the form of a text message.” CRIS General Manager (West) DK Singh confirmed the details to Hindustan Times.
Commuters as a result of this will save a lot of time; I can remember innumerable instances where I have missed at least a train or two because there was a long queue just to buy a ticket at the counter. The railways have tried other mechanisms to reduce crowding at ticket counters such as coupons and cards, which can be topped up. This by far seems like the best bet.
With the RBI drafting a policy statement with respect to Mobile Commerce and this move, the mobile as a device with multifarious uses is soon becoming a reality for 260 Million odd Indians. I just hope that the operators don’t look at this as another way to siphon off revenues in a big way.
On another note, a few days back, in the United States, a blogger used an iPhone to double up as a plane ticket.
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