Railways to Get Contactless Ticketing With QR Code-Enabled Tickets
The railways will move towards contactless ticketing like at airports with QR code-enabled tickets, which will be scanned on handheld devices and mobile phones at the stations and on the trains, a senior official of the national transporter said on Thursday.
Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said while 85 percent train tickets are currently being booked online, a QR code will also be available for those buying tickets from counters.
"We have introduced a QR code system, which will be given on tickets. If one buys online, the code will be provided on the ticket. Even on window tickets, where one gets a physical ticket, a text message will be sent to the passenger's mobile phone, which will have a link, and the QR code will be displayed when the link is touched.
"Then the TTE at the stations or on the trains, either with their hand-held equipment or through their mobile phones which will have a QR application, will be able to scan the code and immediately capture the details of the passengers. So the ticketing system will be completely contactless," he said.
Yadav said the railways is not planning to go completely paperless as of now, but will considerably reduce its use by facilitating online booking of reserved, unreserved and platform tickets.
He also said an online recharge facility of suburban cards and Kolkata Metro has been enabled. A pilot project of contactless ticket-checking with an airport-like check-in for all passengers entering the station has been introduced at Prayagraj Junction of North Central Railway.
A spokesperson of the North Central Railway explained how the process works at the Prayagraj station.
As a passenger enters the station premises, the QR code of his ticket is scanned through a mobile application and this gets updated in the software''s database. The time of scanning the QR code also gets updated in the application The station has check-in counters to minimise the exposure of the checking staff to the passengers. The QR code is scanned and the thermal screening of passengers initiated at these counters, the official said.
He added that the onboard ticket-checking staff also gets information on passengers simultaneously - all information is provided to their handheld machines, including a coach-wise display with the number of berths, unbooked berths and number of boarding passes. "This will help the smooth functioning of the line staff and also help to relay the details of the vacant berths to the next location in a real-time mode," the official said.
Yadav said the IRCTC website will be completely revamped and the processes simplified, personalised and even integrated with hotel and meal bookings. He said the railways has digitised all its assets for better monitoring. It has also established a geo-portal and developed applications for all its fixed assets such as tracks, signalling, OHE and other electrical assets, which have been mapped, the Railway Board chairman added.
The land plans of the national transporter have been authenticated, digitised and geo-referenced, Yadav said, adding that the railways has introduced digital initiatives in its freight and train operations. The Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), e-registration of demand and E-payment Gateway, Integrated Coaching Management System (ICMS), Control Office Application (COA), Crew Management System (CMS), Software-aided Train Scheduling System (SATSANG), Safety Information Management System (SIMS), auto-generation of optimised loco links are some of the applications that are being used for a smooth movement of goods trains, he said.
Yadav said the railways has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for satellite-tracking of trains. This captures real-time data relating to the speed and location of the trains, provides real-time communication to passengers about arrival and departures and analytics for improved operation, he added.
In the first phase, GPS devices have been fitted on 2,700 electric locomotives and 3,800 functional diesel locomotives. In the second phase, an additional 6,000 locomotives will be integrated by December 2021, the Railway Board chairman said.
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Uttarakhand Assembly passes censure motion against opposition over women's reservation bill
Dehradun (PTI): The Uttarakhand Assembly passed a censure motion against the Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday for allegedly blocking the passage of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, in Parliament.
The motion, which expressed the House's formal disapproval of the opposition's conduct, triggered a massive uproar by Congress members, leading to the adjournment of the House sine die.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Subodh Uniyal moved the censure motion, citing the "uncooperative attitude" of opposition parties toward the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies.
Addressing a special daylong session convened specifically to discuss "Nari Samman -- Rights in Democracy", Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the bill's passage would have benefitted every political party.
Dhami noted that after delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in the hill state would have gone up to 105, with 35 reserved for women. He added that the number of Lok Sabha seats from Uttarakhand would have risen from five to seven or eight.
"The opposition fears that if women from ordinary households enter politics, the shops of dynastic politics run by certain parties will shut down," the chief minister claimed.
He compared the opposition's conduct in Parliament to the assembly in Mahabharat where Draupadi was insulted. Dhami further likened the opposition's behaviour to the "arrogance of Ravan".
The chief minister highlighted his government's initiatives, asserting that Uttarakhand was the first state to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to protect women's rights. He said the UCC freed Muslim women from practices like "halala", "iddat", polygamy and child marriage.
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya questioned the technical feasibility of the bill, calling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claims of providing reservation by 2029 "misleading".
He argued that the bill is linked to census and delimitation processes. The Congress leader said the 2026 census would conclude by 2027 and the final data publication would take two more years.
"The delimitation process will take another six years. The actual implementation of this bill is not possible before 2034," Arya said, describing the move as a strategy to protect the BJP's "political ground".
The session also saw high drama outside the Assembly gates, where Congress MLA Virendra Jati staged a protest, demanding the payment of "outstanding" dues to farmers by sugar mills.
Jati arrived at the Assembly's main gate with a tractor-trolley loaded with sugarcane and dumped it on the road. The move brought the traffic to a halt, prompting traffic and security personnel to intervene and clear the area.
Women Congress workers also staged a demonstration against the "anti-people policies" of the state government.
