The Railways, as part of a Go Green policy, has decided to stop pasting reservation charts on train coaches. It will be implemented on a trial basis for three months.
A senior official of the Chennai division of Southern Railway, said the initiative was a pilot project to keep the coaches neat and clean and to do away with defacing them with materials such as paste. “Passengers whose tickets are confirmed or in the waiting list or last-minute confirmations, are already receiving SMS of the seating arrangements. So there will not be any difficulty in identifying the coaches,” added the official.
The official further said that the measure would also save paper. The trial would be implemented in five cities — Chennai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
However, a section of train passengers’ associations and consumer activists voiced their displeasure with the concept, fearing that it could cause a lot of confusion.
T. Sadagopan, a consumer activist from Pattabhiram, said that the plan to stop pasting reservation charts would create confusion, especially among senior citizens who may not be tech-savvy. Though the passengers are receiving SMS about the ticket details, the chart is still necessary, he added.
The Indian Railway had in March last year, planned to do away with the reservation charts under the Go Green policy, but had to drop it after negative feedback.
