Indian Railways unreserved tickets booking online now available across India courtesy new app
Indian Railways unreserved tickets booking online is now available online nationwide from Thursday. This is through Railways UTS mobile app. Buying unreserved tickets on all non-suburban sections across all zonal railways has been made available from November 1. This means passengers will no longer have to wait in queues.
Indian Railways unreserved tickets booking online process of availing tickets involves downloading the application and registration by furnishing the requisite details. After successful registration on the Indian Railways UTS mobile app, the user is given a user-ID and password, which the person can use to log-in and book tickets. Image source: PTI
PLEASE NOTE! Indian Railways says the passenger has to be within a five-kilometre range of the source station to be able to buy a ticket through the UTS app. Also, a passenger is allowed to book four tickets at a time. Via the app, a registered user can also buy platform tickets and monthly passes. Image source: Reuters
A pilot project for buying unreserved tickets through mobile phone was commenced in December, 2014 on select stations on Central Railway to provide customers the convenience of booking of unreserved tickets without having to stand in queues. Image source: Reuters
Gradually, unreserved mobile ticketing facility was extended to all suburban sections in metropolitan cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Secunderabad between 2015 and 2017 along with the facility of paperless ticketing. Image source: Reuters
The facility to buy unreserved tickets, including season tickets and platform tickets, is available through UTSONMOBILE app on Android, iOS and Windows phones. Image source: Reuters
Indian Railways introduced it on non-suburban sections in 2015, initially on Delhi-Palwal section of Northern Railway and then extended to other non-suburban sections of Northern, South Central, Southern, South Western, East Coast, South East Central and South Eastern Railways. Image source: Reuters
The app was launched four years ago, but it is this year that users warmed up to it. In January 2018, 1.8 lakh passengers used the app in a day, in September it rose to 4.4 lakh passengers, and in October the number climbed to 4.75 lakh. Currently, the revenue generated from the app is around Rs 45 lakh per day. Image source: Reuters
Notably, Indian Railways sold 7,483 mn unreserved tickets across its network between 2017-2018. Image source: Reuters