Post offices to sell train tickets soon

You can soon say goodbye to long queues to book rail tickets "� just head to the nearest post office to get your rail reservations done.

The Indian Railways are all set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Post to sell railway tickets through post offices across the country.

Railway Board chairman J P Batra told Business Standard that initially rail ticket services will be available in post offices in key cities, but added that "over time, this facility will be available at all post offices across the country." That's over 1,50,000 post offices all over India.

"Indian Railways will be providing the hardware and software for issuing railway tickets at post offices, while space and personnel would be managed by Indian Post. The Minister for Railways and Indian Post will soon sign an agreement in this regard," said Batra.

Though this will be an additional source of revenue for Indian Post, the commission on tickets and other financial arrangements are yet to be finalised. That's not all. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has signed an MoU with state-run oil major Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) to sell electronic railway tickets through its petrol pumps and retail stores attached to them.

This is already on offer at 36 locations in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar and Pune.

IRCTC also sells tickets through Sify cyber cafes, E-Seva facilities of the Andhra Pradesh government, ITZ Cash Card outlets and Punjab state government-run kiosks.

"The idea is to spread the distribution network of Indian railway tickets.The distribution network would be much larger than those of airlines in the country," Batra said.

To extend the ticket selling network, the railways also permitted Travel Agents Association of India members to book electronic tickets.

These agents will have terminals similar to reservation systems at railway stations. Sources said TAAI's rival association Travel Agents' Federation of India (TAFI) will also get the approval for selling rail tickets.

The Railways have also signed an MoU with the State Bank of India and six other nationalised banks for setting up about 1,500 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at railway stations throughout the country.

Batra added that the Indian Railways is adding more trains and constructing more lines to facilitate train travel.

In March this year, the ministry had increased the advance reservation period from 60 to 90 days on an experimental basis for three months.