The Indian Railways will be able to upgrade its ticket issuing capacity from 25,000 tickets per minute to 2.25 lakh tickets per minute, starting September 2023, railway minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said on Friday.
The minister also said that the Railways’ capacity for attending enquiries will also be upgraded from 4 lakh per minute to 40 lakh per minute.
“We plan to improve the next generation e- ticketing passenger reservation system’s back end infrastructure. At present the capacity of the ticketing is around 25,000 tickets per minute, the target is to upgrade it to 2.25 lakh tickets per minute,” he said at a press conference in New Delhi.
“The capacity for attending enquiries will also be upgraded from 4 lakhs per minute to 40 lakh per minute,” he added.
The minister also said a target has been set to lay new railway tracks for a distance of 7,000km in the financial year 2023-24.
“We have targeted to lay new railway tracks on 4,500 km, which is roughly 12 km per day in FY 2023 and we are on track. This used to be 4 km per day before 2014. We have now set a target of laying new railway tracks (which will include new lines, doubling and gauge conversion) on 7,000 km for the coming financial year,” he said.
Vaishnaw said that this will result in significant improvement in passenger movement and overall on time performances.
The Indian Railways has built 10,438 flyovers and underpasses from 2014 till date for the safety of people. “New scientific people-friendly designs have been approved for constructing new flyovers and underpasses,” he said.
He also announced that “Jan Suvidha” or convenience stores will be constructed at 2,000 railway stations across the country, which will remain open round the clock.
“The stores will have daily usage items, which the passengers will be able to pick while returning home,” he said.
The minister said that so far 594 outlets have been opened at 550 stations under the One Station One Product (OSPS) scheme. “The number of these stations will be taken up to 750 in this financial year,” Vaishnaw said.
The aim of OSPS is to encourage indigenous products and crafts by providing sale outlets at railway stations across the country.
On the mini version of the Vande Bharat Express trains referred to as ‘Vande Metro’, which he announced in his post-budget press conference on Wednesday, Vaishnaw said, “This will be helpful to people living around cities to travel comfortably between their workplace and home towns.”
Union finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced the highest-ever capital outlay for the railways in the Union Budget 2023-24 at ₹2.40 lakh crore.
