Madurai: Union Government’s decision to scrap service charges on train tickets booked through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is likely to expedite the dependency of passengers on the reservation counters at railway stations.
The service charges were at the rate of ₹ 20 and ₹ 40 for sleeper class and air-conditioned coaches respectively.
“This is the right move by the Centre to cut down on railway expenditure as the railway administration has been paying for Enquiry-cum-reservation clerk, computers, electricity and other related infrastructure at railway reservation counters,” a railway official said.
Already, with increased internet penetration, passengers prefer to book railway tickets sitting at home or office. Online bookings of tickets through the IRCTC had gone up to 58 per cent even a year back.
Besides the ease of booking tickets sitting at home or through travel agents, the passengers save huge money and time on travelling to railway stations or satellite reservation centres and for waiting in the queue.
The scrapping of service charges comes at a time when internet penetration is at a faster pace with mobile operators vying with one another to provide free internet package, cheaper net packs and faster connectivity using 4G technology.
The Union Government’s push for less cash transactions post-demonetisation will only give more fillip to online booking.
“The biggest advantage of online booking is cancellation of wait-listed tickets becomes automatic whereas passengers have to visit booking counters again in case of manually-issued tickets,” the official said.
‘Privatisation move’
Already the railway administration had been closing down several reservation counters without any fresh recruitment for the ECRCs. Re-deployment of the ECRCs too had been happening, said general secretary of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union N. Kannaiah.
“The present move to scrap service charges is only to promote the profit-making IRCTC and close down the reservation counters. But, it is only a temporary measure with an aim to privatise railway operations. Once privatisation takes place, the private players will fix the service charges,” he added.
“This will neither benefit the railway employees, who will lose jobs, nor the passengers, who will eventually end up paying more,” Mr. Kannaiah added.
