CHENNAI: To ease the passengers’ hardship in getting unreserved tickets during rush hour and promote paperless ticket, the Southern Railway has upgraded the unreserved ticketing (UTS) mobile application removing geographical restrictions in the application.
The Southern Railway on Saturday launched Book, Activate and Travel (BAAT), a paperless ticketing system in the UTS mobile application at the Chennai Central station.
Earlier, users were not allowed to book tickets within 120 metres’ distance from railway track and ticket counters and had to be present within the 5-km radius from boarding station. The geo-fencing is demarcated in the applications to prevent the use of mobile application by ticketless travellers.
Now rail commuters will be able to book the paperless UTS tickets for travelling in suburban section without any geographical restrictions.
“The UTS mobile application will have no effect of geo-fencing if the passengers opt for BAAT while booking tickets. The passengers will be able to book tickets from their house or office located beyond the five-km radius from the Chennai Central. Similarly, they will be able to book tickets near ticket counters at the station. However, the user will get only dummy ticket,” explained an officer.
The dummy ticket should get activated from the predefined area called activation zone at railway stations with the help of wi-fi facility. “The predefined areas include places near ticket counters, verandah and locations covered under the wi-fi in the station,” the officer said, adding that such electronic ticket is considered valid and there is no need to take the print-out of UTS ticket.
The move is expected to provide huge relief for the passengers during rush hour as they will be able to book tickets in a few seconds at the station premises. The UTS mobile application was introduced in April, 2015 with paper ticket and paperless ticket options and is being used at 128 stations in the Southern Railway. While the paperless ticketing facility is being introduced in the Chennai suburban sections, passengers had to take printouts of tickets booked thorough the applications in rest of the zone.
About 22,040 passengers purchase tickets through UTS application a day. In the Chennai suburban section, three per cent of tickets are booked through the application, according to official records.