Indian Railways to abolish booking of tickets through agents, vendors

New Delhi: In a big move, the Indian Railways will soon end the system of booking train tickets through agents and vendors. The announcement in this regard was made by Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in Lok Sabha on Friday (March 13, 2002). The announcement is part of the Indian Railways’ ongoing crackdown on touts and unauthorised ticket vendors.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, the Railways Minister said that due to penetration of smartphone in the Indian household, train tickets can now be easily booked online through mobile phone using the IRCTC App.

Goyal informed the MPs in Lok Sabha that in the past one year, the Indian Railways has taken several steps to end corruption and the nexus of rail agents and vendors in booking train tickets and arrested several persons in this connection.

Goyal also said that an assessment of railway stoppages will be done and unnecessary stoppages will be abolished to reduce the time of travel. According to the Railways Minister, the Consultative Committee of Parliament has given its nod for the proposals made by the ministry.    

Union Railway Minister also attacked the previous Congress-led governments in Lok Sabha, saying they presented separate railways budget only to mislead people. Replying to a discussion on demands for grants of the Ministry of Railways, he said separate railways budget was only a "balloon" and only attracted "claps" in the House.

He said the "fake" announcements used to only "mislead people in elections". Citing some examples, the Railways Minister said some projects are pending since 1974.

He said allocations for the sector was enhanced to Rs 1.61 lakh crore this year from Rs 54,000 crore in 2013-14. The increased allocation is being used on 58 super-critical and 68 critical projects, Goyal said, adding the current government fixes big target and make all efforts to achieve that.

"We fixed a target for electrification of 6,000 km of the rail line and reached 5,200 km as against 600-650 km of electrification in 2013-14," he said. Goyal also criticised the previous governments on pension funds for the sector, stating they did not take any steps to strengthen this fund.

"In 2014, this fund was very low. We built that adequately," he said, adding this government took calibrated steps to increase revenues for railways, rather than hiking fares by 60-70 per cent and burdening passengers.

On his ministry’s criticism over the slow pace of work in states, Goyal said if states provide help in terms of land availability and other clearances, the project will be implemented at a fast pace. For north-eastern states, he said several projects are underway. Earlier about 60 helplines numbers were there for registering complaints, but "we have only one (139) for general complaints" and another (182) for security-related matters.

He said the Rail Ministry has sent a written reply to all members who have participated in the discussion.