TIRUCHY: Courtesy of the slew of upgrades recently initiated to the UTS (online train ticket booking) application, the digital platform witnessed a record growth in usage over the past ten months. According to the Southern Railway, over 50.75 lakh tickets worth Rs 24.82 crore have been booked through the mobile application from April 2022 to January 2023.
Of this, as many as 99,235 tickets worth 98 lakh were booked in the Tiruchy railway division alone. The UTS application was launched in the Chennai suburbs in 2015. Later, it was extended across divisions in 2018. With the railway officials initiating various measures last year, including the introduction of the QR code system, the UTS was popularised among commuters and it went places.
Meanwhile, sources said the upgrades to the application is likely to lead to a three-fold increase in its usage over the next two years. In Tiruchy division, the application recorded high traffic in regard to ticket booking from major stations like Tiruchy, Thanjavur and Villupuram. A senior official said, "The online ticket booking facility is available in about 93 stations under the Tiruchy division. We have created awareness of it in all the stations and our team would be initiating more steps."
Meanwhile, the authorities mull over installing Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) in more stations. As per the current plan, a total of 254 ATVMs will be allotted to six divisions. Of this, as many as 12 would be allotted to Tiruchy alone. As of now, ATVMs are available at the stations in Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam under the Tiruchy division which recorded 8.9 lakh ticket bookings worth about Rs 7.99 crore from April 2022 to January 2023. "The UTS applications and the ATVMs were introduced to facilitate comfortable travel experience to passengers. It would also get rid of the long queues at teh stations," a source said.