In a much respite to villagers in surrounding areas and thousands of others visiting to the locality for various purposes, Ranchi Division of Indian Railways started its computerised ticket reservation counter in Kanke Sub-Post Office on Thursday. This is the 14th railway reservation counter in a post office in Jharkhand Circle of India Posts, where all the services related to railway ticket booking and cancellation will be available from Friday.
“We, along with Indian Railways, have targeted to open railway reservation counters at some 50 of our Post Offices in Jharkhand where a railway reservation counter is not only required, but would be viable, too. This counter at Kanke Sub-Post Office near RINPAS is 14th among them. We are in the process of opening 36 other such counters in Jharkhand after due diligence, in which lohardaga has got in principle approval,” said Jharkhand Circle Chief Postmaster General Anil Kumar inaugurating railway reservation counter at Kanke Post Office on Thursday.
Ranchi Division Senior DCM Neeraj Kumar present on the occasion said that the centre was going to be of much help to those living in surrounding villages. “They will not have to waste hours for going to Ranchi Railway Station to get their tickets booked, which will also save their money. Moreover, There is RINPAS close to this centre, where thousands of patients and others visit everyday. There are educational institutions like Birsa Agricultural University and law University and couple of others nearby, making this reservation centre very important for a large number of visitors,” said Kumar.
However, visitors coming to Kanke Post Office from Friday morning will have to face two of the challenges. One of them is that the counter doesn’t have any online payment option for the time being. “There are some technical issues due to which we couldn’t make a card swipe machine available right from the first day. I can assure this will not take more than a week to address the issue and we will get it installed most probably before the end of this month itself,” said Neeraj Kumar.
However, Remaining restricted within Post Office timings is something that those coming to get a ticket booked will have to face for long. The reservation counter will remain operational between 10AM to 4PM only on post office working days. “It is something which we will have to follow,” said Neeraj Kumar.