Railways to spend Rs5,000 crore on IT operations in 11th Plan

New Delhi: The railway ministry plans to spend Rs5,000 crore for its information technology-related operations in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan marking a four fold increase in this segment.
A major part of the funds would go into expanding ticketing facilities, with the aim of taking it to the passenger's doorstep.

With the railway ministry having expanded its e-ticketing facility to passengers through cyber cafes, automated teller machines and even filling stations the Rs5,000 crore fund will be used for further consolidation of these facilities. The focus will be more on saving expenses on back-end operations.

The ministry is already in talks with the department of posts for making railway tickets available in post offices and authorising the postman to deliver tickets at the passenger's doorstep.

Also, through its ticket and catering service provider arm, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, the railway ministry is talking to Indian Oil Corporation and other oil public sector utilities for providing e-ticketing facilities at filling staions.

IRCTC recently tied up with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd for using its petrol pumps for e-ticketing facilities.

The railway ministry is also in the process of expanding the unreserved ticketing system to all the small stations of the country. This system was introduced in 2001, wherein daily passengers for short distance journeys were given the option to buy tickets 72 hours in advance.

This facility would also be extended to stations in mofussil towns so that passengers there do not have to travel to the nearest major station to buy tickets for short distance travel.