Mumbaikars! Soon, pay for local train tickets by credit/debit card

The initiative is aimed at reducing long queues at railway ticket counters

You could soon use your credit/debit cards to buy a local train ticket or pass, with the IT arm of the Indian Railways working on plugging the last loophole in the project.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems, the IT arm of Indian Railways, has, through the Central Railway, forwarded a proposal to the railway board to modify the existing lot of ticket machines. Once the changes are made as a policy decision, the Automated Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) across the country will allow debit and credit card transactions for buying tickets.

A senior official associated with the project said that this has been on the cards for several years and a study of all aspects with field trials by the Centre for Railway Information Systems has found that it is possible to implement it in Mumbai. "Mumbai stations have an extensive network of ATVMs and these can be easily modified to use with credit and debit cards," a senior official said.

Explaining the process, he said, "We have been conducting extensive field trials by swiping bank cards on these machines and they have been working well. The only lacunae was that the cards require the issuance of receipts for a bank statement, which the machines cannot dispense."

"We have sent a report to the railway board telling them if the machines are tweaked to get in these receipt slots, the project can go ahead," he added. Meanwhile, Central Railway is planning to create dedicated zones at stations for these machines. The initiative will first begin with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Kalyan.

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