Now book Railways tickets like flights: People to get airlines-like seat-by-seat information

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will soon enable airlines-like seat-by-seat information to its users. To make the process of ticket booking easy, Railway minister Piyush Goyal has asked to develop the system where travelers can know before hand what seats are already being booked. 

Besides, the information about which seat has been booked by what PNR number will also be available. 

Piyush Goyal has directed Railways to implement airlines ticket booking mechanism in Railways also. 

Meanwhile, be prepared to pay more for consuming less. The Railway Board has approved a hike in the cost of buying a glass of water from the vending machines at railway stations with a hope that passengers get 300 ml of water and are not forced to buy 500 ml of water.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had requested a hike in the cost of 300 ml water available at water vending machines (WVMs). The Railway Board approved the hike earlier in December and it will be soon in place. At present, people can either refill their bottles by paying Re 1 for 300 ml of water or by paying Rs 2 for carrying water in a paper container from these WVMs.

Until now, people were deprived of the option of buying 300 ml of water, despite it being available, and were forced to buy 500 ml of water. "It has been found that the cost of selling 300 ml of water was more for these contractors. So, they only sold 500 ml of water using papaer containers. Now that prices have been hiked, we expect passengers to be able to get 300 ml of water with ease from these WVMs," an official from the IRCTC said.