BHUBANESWAR: Indian Railways has put a cap on distance for mobile app-based Unreserved Ticket System (UTS). Passengers can not purchase unreserved ticket within 20 metre and beyond five km of their boarding station.
An East Coast Railway official said the cap has been fixed to check cheating and manipulation by unscrupulous passengers after some travellers were found buying tickets through app during only checking by ticket examiners.
“The 20-metre cap will prevent travellers those who buy a ticket only to escape from being caught while the five-km cap will not allow any passenger, who board from one station but buy ticket mentioning another station, to obtain a ticket. Passengers can book tickets from the originating stations to any destination station under Indian Railways except Konkan Railway,” he said.
The Railways have introduced a digital platform ‘UTS on Mobile’ last year to allow passengers book unreserved tickets.
The mobile app is steadily gaining popularity like the online booking system of reserved train tickets. The UTS enables paperless ticketing of unreserved tickets for passengers.
Sources said after the app was launched, the unreserved ticket booking in ECoR jurisdiction has set a record.
The booking of unreserved tickets from mobile phone has increased by around 315 per cent in the last one year.
While 3,05,510 unreserved tickets were booked till December 31 last year, the number has gone up to 9,62,319 till December 17 this year.