Railways launches ‘SMS Gateway’ for alerting passengers on PNR status

Indian Railways has launched a new facility called the 'SMS Gateway', which will enable passengers to get SMS alerts on the status of reserved tickets.

The 'SMS Gateway' will be used to send SMS alerts to passengers in case of status change in the passenger reservation system (PRS) tickets, as compared to the initial booking status (for example W/L (wait-listed) to RAC (reserved against cancellation), RAC to CNF (confirmed), W/L to CNF etc).

Minister of state for railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury launched the 'SMS Gateway', which was developed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an autonomous organisation under the ministry of railways, on the occasion of a seminar on the theme `Role of IT in Rail Services – Present and Future', organised by the Centre for Transportation Research and Management (CTRAM), an autonomous body of the ministry of railways, in New Delhi today.

SMS alerts prior to the finalisation of passenger charts will be sent once a day, in case of status change only, beginning from five days before the journey date. The SMS alerts after chart preparation (which is normally done 3-4 hours before train departure), will convey the actual berth, coach and RAC numbers for those passengers whose final charting status has changed as compared to the initial booked status.

SMS alerts will also be sent in cases of any ticket upgradation or seat re-allotment.

Since an estimated 4 lakh SMS alerts will have to be sent on a daily basis, the railways propose to bring the system online in phases. Initially, the system would be configured for sending post chart alerts in a few select Rajdhani trains, followed by other mail and express trains. Subsequently the pre chart alerts will be enabled.

This facility will greatly reduce the last-minute enquiry rush on the PRS web sites and call centres as well as reduce the crowding near the pasted chart locations on the railway platforms. This service will be provided free of cost to rail travellers.

Until now, passengers were dependent on website enquiries or call centre (139) or IVRS or SMS enquiry for finding their PNR status. Indian Railways has now decided to proactively send the SMS alerts to passengers at no extra charge to them.

Mahindra Comiva and Velti System, India were the technical partners of CRIS in the new project of the Railways' backend main PRS system (CONCERT), which is one of the largest ticketing applications in the world.