Railways to set up 23 call centres countrywide

The Indian Railways will open 23 call centres across the country to provide information on its services after analysing its pilot projects in Bangalore and Patna over the next three months.

These call centres will be in line with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) 23 telecom circles across the country as they will be providing the telecom lines, according to R Velu, Union minister of state for railways. He was in Bangalore to inaugurate the South Western Railway's Integrated Train Enquiry System (call centre), in association with Railtel, in Bangalore today.

The South Western Railways has set up the call centre in Bangalore at a cost of Rs 60 lakh. It can be accessed by dialling "139" from anywhere in Karnataka. With this, passengers need not remember different numbers for different kind of enquiries.

BSNL has provided 240 lines as against the previous 37 lines for this call centre. This Interactive Voice Response (IVR)-based service is mostly automated and would be available in three languages""English, Hindi and Kannada. The call centre would employ 12 people.

At present, the railways carry 13.5 million passengers in 1,200 trains daily. The opening of a call centre will mean that passengers can access crucial information like arrival and departure of trains, fare/concession details, rules and regulations for loss of ticket,change in name, break journey,circular journey and information pertaining to foreign tourists.

"We will roll out these call centres across the country based on the success of the two centres in Bangalore and Patna. The status of reservation against the PNR and availability of reservation for a particular train can now be known through a 'Quick Query'. We are also providing Information Corners in the Passenger Reservation Service offices and later at stations from where passengers will get free access to call centres on hot-lines," Velu noted.

The call centre can be accessed by dialling "139" from anywhere in Karnataka. For every call that the passenger makes to this number, BSNL will pay 15 paise to the railways. Nearly 40,000 calls are expected per day. At this rate, railway officials feel that the total investment in the call centre will be recovered within three years.

The minister said grievances could also be recorded through the call centre. This will immediately go to senior railway officials for taking necessary action.

"Voice recognition facility, confirmation of ticket and arrival/departure through SMS are also being started as a first step. This facility will be further improved and extended for more queries based on experience and the involvement of telecom service providers," Velu added.