BHUBANESWAR : Two students of IIT-Bhubaneswar along with their teachers have come up with an innovation that can simplify the train journey for people travelling with family or friends but have been assigned different coaches.
BTech students Rustam Kumar and Sangam Mishra, and their faculty members Srikant Gollapudi and Srinivas Pinisetty have developed a mobile and web app ‘Simply-Swap’, which aims at facilitating seat swapping among train passengers.
Many times, people travelling in trains with their families or friends face the problem of seats being allotted in different coaches. Such passengers seek seat swaps through direct requests to fellow travellers but meet with limited success, they said.
Based on his personal experience with seat swapping requests, Gollapudi conceptualised an app that could facilitate seat swapping among train passengers with negligible effort. The application allows registered users to post seat swapping requests by entering their current seat details, desired seat or coach, and train information.
Any other user travelling in the same train with a seat reservation in the specified coach can view the request and opt to accept the swap. Once a match is found, the app facilitates the swapping process, reducing the stress of manual coordination.
The team believes Simply-Swap could significantly enhance passenger convenience and satisfaction, if the app is integrated into Indian Railways services. “The app aligns with the broader vision of leveraging technology to improve travel experience,” Pinishetty said.
The team is currently in talks with startups and venture capitalists for commercialisation and has received good response.