Visakhapatnam: Train Ticket Examiners (TTE), who will verify passengers with palmtops or Hand-Hand Terminal (HHT) computer systems rather than sheaves of reservation charts will be the next digital trend on the East Coast Railway Zone (ECoR) too.
With the launch of the HHT device for TTEs by the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on February 10, the digital system could be implemented in the ECoR zone in a couple of months' time, said ECoR Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) J.P. Mishra.
The HHT system has been taken up for some trains on a pilot basis in the Northern Railway zone in a response to the Central government's ‘Digital India’ initiative.
The device, connected to the main server wireless, will help Train Ticket Examiners inform passengers, at the touch of a finger, about their reservation status and also the next down streaming stations.
Besides bringing in transparency, the IT initiative will make the reservation process hassle-free and also save vast amounts of paper, Mr Mishra said.
“The initiative has become very fruitful and successful wherever this has been implemented. Given the interest of the Railway Ministry and the speed at which the system is progressing, I feel it could be implemented in the ECoR zone in a couple of months after the budget session, or latest, by year-end,” said the CPRO.
“The ministry is seeking feedback from the railway zones. Based on the report, the Railway Board will take a suitable decision on its implementation. The board will assign the railway zones to carry out experiments,” he added.
The use of this technology is aimed at maximising revenue yield by making on board accommodation availability visible to downstream stations so that passengers can do current bookings against these vacant seats, which currently go empty up to the terminal stations as passengers don’t have this information.
Limited height rail subway
As a safety plan the Waltair Railway division has eliminate an unmanned level crossings by constructing limited height subway (LHS) taking into the consideration of the vehicular traffic in that particular level crossing.
The limited height subway is mainly meant for safe passage of public.
“The division would construct 3 limited height subways between Kotabommali-Tilaru section of the Howrah-Chennai main line. The first one was completed on Tuesday in record time of four and half hours. Works on the other two would be taken up on February 18 and 21,” said Waltair division DRM Chandralekha Mukherjee.
“There are a large number of level crossings (manned and unmanned) over Indian Railways. These can be closed by constructing limited height subways or normal height subways/Road under bridges. Level crossings are vulnerable locations for accidents, particularly unmanned level crossings and when the road traffic at manned level crossings increase it may lead to delay in running of train traffic or public passage,” she added.
“With the adoption of” cut and cover” method in the installation process, about Rs. 27 lakhs saved from expenditure and also saved time which would have taken 14 hours instead of four and half hour which is a record time,” she claimed.
East Coast Railway General Manager Rajiv Vishnoi appreciated the Division’s achievement commissioned
