South Central Railway (SCR) has introduced the hand-held terminals with advanced features to its ticket checking staff in 16 more trains in addition to the Secunderabad-Pune Shatabdi Express introduced in 2019.
These devices dispense the need of carrying physical charts and making manual entries, enabling the ticket checking staff on-board to verify status of reserved passengers’ list of the entire train, live status of vacant berths and allot the vacant berths between identified destinations to passengers in a transparent manner, informed senior officials on Thursday.
These hand-held devices will be used in three pairs of Duronto Express trains between Secunderabad - Nizamuddin, Secunderabad - Visakhpatnam and Secunderabad - Lokamanya Tilak Terminus, five pairs of superfast trains viz., Satavahana Express, Pinakini Express, Ratnachal Express, Sirpur Kagaznagar Express and Vijayawada Intercity express.
Training has been imparted to the ticket checking staff with regards to the working with HHTs. Passengers too will get the benefit of real-time information about vacant berths at stations en route and berths can be allotted for the needy passengers in the next remote location in case of vacant accommodation, even when the train is running.
With information about cancellation done after the preparation of the charts sent on an hourly basis to the device, detecting fraudulent travel also becomes easier. Other advantages are: calculation of occupancy for food and bedrolls can be made instantly, refunds can be processed quickly, there is communication between TCs in different coaches to clear berth allotments and it is eco-friendly as it saves on paper, said chief PRO Ch. Rakesh.
