HAS waiting in long queues for buying a train ticket, or lack of credit or debit cards for online reservations left you frustrated? Relax. Come 2007 and you can get online reservations by paying cash. And how?
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has tied up with Sify Ltd. to introduce a service wherein you can pay cash at Sify-Iway cyber cafes and get train tickets. IRCTC has also signed an MoU with State Bank of India under which the bank will set up internet facilities at its ATMs and branches where its customers can get printouts of train tickets while they pay with their SBI cards.
Primarily, a customer will have to pay Rs 45 over and above the ticket cost for IInd class and Rs 65 for Ist class and all ACs. Sanjay Agarwal, General Manager IRCTC, said, ‘‘The basic aim is to bring the reservation centres in your vicinity. Earlier, only card holders could avail such services to avoid long queues. Now, even non-card holders can avail them. Also, we have asked Sify Ltd. to raise its number of cyber cafes from the existing 3,000 in over 200 cities.’’
Currently, Sify is running these services on trial basis at 10 cyber cafes in Delhi. ‘‘After 3-4 weeks of observation, we will expand the services to other cyber cafes in the country. It will probably take us 3-4 months to touch all cyber cafes,’’said Vivek Kumar, Head, Product and New Initiatives, Sify Ltd. Commenting on the cost factor, Kumar said that although extra amount is being charged on ‘‘per ticket basis’’, it is definitely ‘value-for-money’ since people would not have to go to reservation counters everytime. Instead, they’d just have to look for an Iway outlet nearby, he added.
Similarly, SBI has decided to install hardware and software at its ATMs around the country from where its customers can get printouts of train tickets by using their SBI cards. ‘‘We have initiated Phase-I wherein computers are being installed at ATMs. These computers will showcase specific websites like irctc.co.in from which our customers can avail services of reservations, etc. They can get printouts of the tickets through customised printers installed in the ATMs while the payments can be made through their cards,’’ said Sreekumar Thampi, Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India.
Source: Expressindia.com
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has tied up with Sify Ltd. to introduce a service wherein you can pay cash at Sify-Iway cyber cafes and get train tickets. IRCTC has also signed an MoU with State Bank of India under which the bank will set up internet facilities at its ATMs and branches where its customers can get printouts of train tickets while they pay with their SBI cards.
Primarily, a customer will have to pay Rs 45 over and above the ticket cost for IInd class and Rs 65 for Ist class and all ACs. Sanjay Agarwal, General Manager IRCTC, said, ‘‘The basic aim is to bring the reservation centres in your vicinity. Earlier, only card holders could avail such services to avoid long queues. Now, even non-card holders can avail them. Also, we have asked Sify Ltd. to raise its number of cyber cafes from the existing 3,000 in over 200 cities.’’
Currently, Sify is running these services on trial basis at 10 cyber cafes in Delhi. ‘‘After 3-4 weeks of observation, we will expand the services to other cyber cafes in the country. It will probably take us 3-4 months to touch all cyber cafes,’’said Vivek Kumar, Head, Product and New Initiatives, Sify Ltd. Commenting on the cost factor, Kumar said that although extra amount is being charged on ‘‘per ticket basis’’, it is definitely ‘value-for-money’ since people would not have to go to reservation counters everytime. Instead, they’d just have to look for an Iway outlet nearby, he added.
Similarly, SBI has decided to install hardware and software at its ATMs around the country from where its customers can get printouts of train tickets by using their SBI cards. ‘‘We have initiated Phase-I wherein computers are being installed at ATMs. These computers will showcase specific websites like irctc.co.in from which our customers can avail services of reservations, etc. They can get printouts of the tickets through customised printers installed in the ATMs while the payments can be made through their cards,’’ said Sreekumar Thampi, Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India.
Source: Expressindia.com