Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division intends to empanel about 300 facilitators to help passengers buy unreserved tickets through automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) using smart cards at railway stations across the Division including 30 facilitators in two stations of Mangaluru region.
The facilitators will be empanelled for one year, the contract of which was renewable at the discretion of the Railway Ministry. Empanelment was not a regular employment, the facilitators could earn their revenue through the 3% bonus that was payable on every ticket dispensed through ATVMs, said the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager in a notification.
As many as 21 facilitators were required for Mangaluru Central Railway Station to manage five ATVMs and nine for Mangaluru Junction Station to manage one ATVM round-the-clock. The stations have one unreserved ticket issuing counter working round-the-clock. While Mangaluru Central sells unreserved tickets worth about ₹8 lakh, Junction sells tickets worth about ₹2 lakh every day.
The decision to empanel facilitators was taken following very few passengers using ATVMs to buy unreserved tickets and instead queue up in front of unreserved ticket issuing counters. “The Railways intends to reduce the number of employees in unreserved counters as far as possible,” said an official.
Open to general public
Though a few retired Railway employees manage the ATVMs at Railway stations, officials said they were not willing to work round-the-clock nor were adaptable to the requirements. Hence, the Ministry allowed the general public to become facilitators; however, they must pay security deposits, ₹50,000 for NSG2 category stations and ₹25,000 for NSG3 and below categories. Mangaluru Stations fall under NSG3 category.
Yet, preference would be given to retired employees in the empanellment while they were also allowed to nominate one of their family members, spouse or children, as assistants, while selecting the facilitators. General public do not have this option. Station in-charge deploys selected facilitators to work on rotation-basis.
Applicants from the general public category should be aged above 18, have passed SSLC or above, and be conversant at least with the local language, to apply. A facilitator could buy a maximum of three rechargeable smart cards at the station to help passengers buy unreserved tickets from ATVMs. If a passenger wants to buy tickets by himself or herself through ATVMs, the facilitator should give preference the passenger.
Application form was available at www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in.
The last date to submit the applications is May 24 till 3 p.m.
