CHENNAI: Mobile-ticketing was introduced on the Chennai suburban train network and recently, paperless ticketing was introduced on the Egmore-Tambaram stretch. However, this has led to confusions among sections of passengers who are under the wrong assumption that mobile-ticketing on all sections of the suburban network are paperless, Southern Railway officials said.
Through the mobile-ticketing system, passengers can book tickets through their android applications; however, the ticket had to be printed at one of the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) at the originating station of the journey. In a bid to eliminate this step, Indian Railways had for the first time made the Egmore-Tambaram stretch paperless.
A senior SR official said, “Only journeys starting and ending on the Egmore-Tambaram route will be paperless for those booking m-tickets. If someone takes a journey from Beach to Nungambakkam, or Kodambakkam to Chengalpattu, he/she would have to take a print-out at the Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) at the originating station.”
Passengers who travel through the other sections like Chennai-Arakkonam, Chennai-Sullurpeta, Beach-Egmore and Tambaram-Chengalpattu would have to get print-outs of the mobile tickets at ATVM, the officialsaid. “Around 100 m-ticket users have been caught along these sections and when asked for paper tickets, produced the screen-shot. This needed clarification,” the official said.
The Egmore-Tambaram route is also equipped with geo-fencing which means that commuters can’t get on the train or station and book a ticket from their mobile after spotting a ticket-checker. “The application will work only 15 metres away from either side of the tracks and within a radius of 5 km from the stations on the sector,” the official said. With only around 70 m-tickets on a daily basis, another SR official.“We are planning to target the tech-savvy commuters along the IT corridor with some campaigns to popularise it.”