Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewaks (JTBS), which act as the franchisee of the Railways for issuing current tickets, has come to stay in the city. The JTBS of late is enjoying good patronage here.
The serpentine queues in front of current ticket booking counters always cause anxiety to commuters. The JTBS has lessened burden for the Railways and passengers to a considerable extent.
The Railway Board introduced this concept under the banner ‘queue less counters’ to do away with the queue system at railway stations and to help last- minute travellers without a reserved ticket.
JTBS issues unreserved tickets for any destination in the country and for this service they charge one rupee extra over and above the ticket fare.
“The response has been good and we sell more than 350 tickets daily,” says S. M. Sathik Batcha, running the JTBS near Tiruchi junction. “I have many regular customers, including construction workers who visit the city from the nearby villages, and they get the tickets across the counter without difficulty. The demand is for four trains – Mayiladuthurai passenger, Karur passenger, Dindigul passenger and Vridachalam passenger – all originating from Tiruchi junction between 5.45 p.m. and 6.15 p.m.
On Friday evenings, queue could be seen in front of the JTBS run by Mr. Batcha.
It is the time when students and office-goers from other towns and staying in hostels in the city leave for their destinations for weekend .
Many feel that Railways should take more steps for creating awareness of this concept.
