‘App to handle all ticketing activities’

Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said that Indian Railways is trying to introduce a single app for all ticketing activities across the country. Mr Prabhu was speaking at a conference held by the IIT fraternity, near Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

The minister has said Railways is working with ISRO to allow passengers to use geo-spatial locations to book their tickets on any train throughout the country, which may include suburban or long-distance tickets as well. “We are already integrating all ticketing-related activities in one app very soon. Another apps will be for activities other than ticketing on the Indian Railways. These are in the advanced stages of implementation,” said Mr Prabhu.

Many stakeholders in the IT world were present at conference, which was called ‘IT for Parivahan’. Mr Prabhu said that Railways is planning to launch a major programme via the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which is ideally used in a business management set up, that integrates different applications under one umbrella. “IT is being used to transform Railways in a significant way. One of the major complete programmes which will be launched very soon will be ERP, for the Railways to integrate almost all of its operations, and that is a very ambitious programme,” he further added.

He continued to talk about the importance of innovation and technology later in the day at Dadar where he remotely inaugurated a flurry of amenities for commuters like, a foot-over-bridge, ramps, booking office and a toilet block and an escaltor for Kanjurmarg station. The minister said that although the big picture of technology is the future for a more efficient railway system, small amenities are also as important for the common man.