New Delhi: 

Indian Railways is pilot testing a new mechanism that would help passengers to know about their status of ticket confirmation. The current system involves the passengers knowing about their train ticket confirmation 4 hours before the train departure.

The proposed plan aims to let passengers know about their ticket confirmation 24 hours prior to the departure. Once implemented, it will allow passengers enough time to cancel, rebook, or explore other travel options.

Challenges:

However, there lie some challenges in the implementation of the project, such as real-time synchronisation across multiple booking platforms, cancellation of tickets post-chart preparation, and last-minute booking and updates. The success of the project depends upon the tactical overcoming of these challenges.

The pilot project is being run in the Bikaner division of Indian Railways in Rajasthan, as per the reports of the Ministry of Railways. Several trains are part of this project to check the practicality and feasibility of the 24-hour ticketing confirmation system.

The system could be rolled out across the country as per the results of the pilot project test. The current project is part of Indian Railways’s digital transformation drive.

IRCTC Ticket:

Currently, Railways prepares two charts. A first chart is prepared four hours before the departure of the train, and the other one is prepared 30 minutes before the departure to accommodate last-minute changes.

The new project aims to change the existing system and strives to prepare a single final chart 24 hours in advance. However, real-time updates and perfect synchronization across the ticketing system will be the key factors for a pan-India successful rollout of the new system.

Last-minute confirmation of tickets, i.e., PNR confirmation before 4 hours of departure, is the biggest issue that passengers are currently facing. Upon non-confirmation of tickets, the passengers are left with no choice for other scheduled trains, which leads to the imbalance in their traveling schedule.

With an upcoming system, this issue would get resolved, and passengers would have an extra 24 hours to plan for any changes that might come upon non-confirmation of tickets.

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