Buoyed by the encouraging response which it received to the booking of railway reservation tickets at its Aska head post office in south Orissa's Ganjam district, India Post has proposed to introduce the facility in 10 more post offices in south Orissa including Berhampur.
'‘As the railway ticket booking at Aska head post office is functioning very well, we have given a proposal to the Railways to open such centres in several other places of southern Orissa”, said S K Kamila, Post Master General (PMG) of Berhampur region. He was addressing mediapersons on the eve of the celebration of the 'Postal Week' from Saturday.
The proposal has been given to Railways to open the railway ticket booking counters at Bhanjanagr, Polasara, Gopalpur in Ganjam district Phulabani in Kandhamal district, Boudh, Damanjodi in Koraput district, Khariar in Kalahandi district, Nabarangapur and Berhampur.
“The decision will be taken after the discussions with the Department of Posts and the Railways'', he said. The Railway ticket booking facility is presently available in two post offices in the state at present. Besides Aska, such facility is available in Sundargarh. The revenue collection from the Aska head post office through the railway ticket booking has been very satisfactory, he said.
The railway ticket booking counter at Aska was opened on September 11 last year in collaboration with the Railways. The postal department has provided the infrastructure facilities and manpower, while the Railways have provided computers, connecting them with its server to run the centre. Every month, around 2500 tickets were booked fand around Rs 25,000 revenue was collected from the reservation centre at the post office at Aska, he said. This is despite the introduction of the e-ticket booking system by the Railways. “The e-ticket booking system is for the elite classes. The general people who cannot go to the railway booking counter to book the ticket, prefer to go to the post office for the ticket booking”, he claimed. The postal department is getting commission of Rs 15 to book a ticket and Rs 10 per ticket in case of cancellation.