For the moment, the system will only serve WR's suburban area, and it is expected to be up and running on Central Railway in a couple of months.
Commuters on the Western Railway's Mumbai suburban line have got a new way to beat the ticket queue. Railways minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday inaugurated the UTSonMobile system, an in-house railway app which lets people book unreserved tickets on the suburban network using a mobile phone application. The application works on Android and Windows phones. Apart from saving time in queues, the app is also expected to reduce the need for ticketing paper considerably.
For the moment, the system will only serve WR's suburban area, and it is expected to be up and running on Central Railway in a couple of months.
CP Sharma, chief commercial manager, WR said, "First with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) the entire route from Churchgate to Dahanu was mapped using satellite. One can book a ticket on his mobile if one is in any location ranging from 30 metres outside the outer tracks up to a maximum of 2 kilometres. At the moment you can only book tickets when both originating and destination points are within WR, that is between Churchgate and Dahanu."
As part of its security features, the ticket booked using the app will have a distinct colour code for each day and an embedded Quick Response (QR) code. It cannot be forwarded to another mobile nor can it be edited. "The old tickets can be moved from the mobile using a feature in the application itself," said Sharat Chandrayan, chief spokesperson, WR.
How to use it?
1- Download and install UTS app on your smartphone
2- First-time users need to sign up
3- Select the city as Mumbai
4- Use normal/quick booking as per choice given in the app window
5- Purchase tickets using R-wallet
6- R-wallet can be recharged on www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in or at any suburban ticket window (recharge can be minimum Rs100 and maximum Rs5000)
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