Railways to do away with reservation charts on trains from March 1 on trial basis

The railway ministry has directed its zones to discontinue pasting reservation charts on reserved coaches of all trains at A1, A and B category stations as a pilot project for six months from March 1, an official statement said today.

However, physical and digital display of charts will continue at the platforms, the ministry statement said.

Based on the income from passengers, the railways classifies its stations into seven categories — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F. It has 17 zones.

"At those stations where electronic charts display plasma has been installed and the same is functioning properly, physical reservation charts at such platforms can be stopped," it added.

Earlier, pasting of reservation charts on reserved coaches of all trains was discontinued at New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Mumbai Central, Chennai Central, Howrah and Sealdah stations.

The aim behind the move to go paperless is the green initiative by South Western Railways' Bengaluru Division (SBC) which discontinued pasting charts on reserved coaches of all trains from Bengaluru City and Yeshwantpur stations from November 2016.

The move helped save over Rs 60 lakh spent on paper by the division.