BHUBANESWAR: Searching for a railway station close to a popular place, tourist, or pilgrimage destination while booking tickets will be easier now. The Indian Railways has adopted an innovative approach of linking popular areas with station names for the convenience of passengers.
East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources said the new measure would yield better planning of journey and personalised passenger experience in ticket booking on website and mobile app. Live from Friday, it facilitates passengers and tourists identify stations close to popular destinations. It will also provide better connectivity for passengers.
“Sometimes local and popular names are different from names of railway stations leading to confusion among passengers while planning journeys. Linking of names to popular places with nearby railway stations will eliminate the confusion. The initiative also includes linking of satellite cities or tourist destinations to connecting railway stations,” said a railway official.
Sources said, necessary changes in the application have been made and 175 popular cities/areas linked with 725 stations so far. The changes have been incorporated in the journey planner station search of e-ticket booking websites. The functionality will be displayed on the journey planner and electronic reservation slip of the ticket.
Small stations and areas like Vani Vihar, Barang, Lingaraj Temple Road and Mancheswar have been linked with Bhubaneswar. Similarly Hirakud, Sambalpur, Sambalpur Road and Sambalpur city have been mapped with Sambalpur and Belpahar, Brajarajnagar, Brundamal, Jharsuguda Junction, Lapang and Jharsuguda Road with Jharsuguda.
Not only small stations and satellite cities, places of tourist importance like Puri, Chandipur, Udayagiri-Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri, Similipal, Debrigarh, Hirakud and Deomali have been mapped to nearest stations. If a scheduled station is changed due to operational or maintenance activity, the journey planner will show an alternate station in search option.
“The initiative will promote regional importance and become a pride for citizens. Popular city names associated with a railway station will also give a sense of pride and ownership to the citizens,” the railway official said.