Parliamentary Panel Report Asks Indian Railways to Review Its Policy of Second Reservation Charts

Raising doubts over the utility of second reservation charts, a parliamentary panel on railways has suggested that the Indian Railways should review its policy in this regard. A second reservation chart will be prepared 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure of the train. However, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Railways said that there was no logic to booking tickets 30 minutes before the train’s departure when there are many Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) or waiting ticket holders waiting for confirmation, reported Deccan Herald.

In the report, ‘Passengers Reservation System of Indian Railways’, the panel headed by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh said that there was already the provision of Tatkal ticket booking for passengers travelling on short notices. So, all the seats left vacant after the preparation of the first reservation list 4 to 5 hours prior to the scheduled departure should automatically be allotted to waitlisted or RAC ticket holders. This would allow the passengers to travel hassle-free on their planned schedule.

A special mechanism to help RAC ticket holders was suggested in this report. The panel said that the railways should develop a mechanism in the coaches to allow RAC passengers to know the current status of set confirmation without having to run behind Train Ticket Examinees. A facility allowing passengers to update information on a real-time basis will also ensure greater transparency in the allocation of train seats.

The committee also recommended the railways to review the Flexi/ dynamic fare mechanism introduced in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains stating that the decision about the train fares should be balanced and faced on equal footing. The panel added the pricing of premium trains was already higher than regular mail and express trains. The increment under the Flexi plans put these trains out of reach for financially disadvantaged rail users.

There were also suggestions to regularly strengthen and upgrade the capacity of IRCTC website servers so that they could handle the heavy traffic with reduced turnaround time.

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