As part of the Digital India initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Railways on Tuesday launched e-samiksha, an online mechanism to monitor implementation of various ongoing projects including Rail Budget proposals. Besides this, the railways will also launch a mobile application that will enable passengers without reserved seats to travel by showing their ticket booking through the app.
A senior railway official said that the mobile-based paperless unreserved ticketing application will come into effect from Wednesday. A ticket can be booked by using the App and a commuter need not take a print-out of the same and can show its soft copy on the mobile phone to the TTE.
Apart from being a green initiative, the paperless ticketing system would also save time for passengers as it allows them to avoid lining up at the ticket window. As per the plan, one may download the App from the Google App store for Android-based mobile phones. After the download, the user will get a registration ID number for creation of a railway e-wallet.
Money for buying tickets will have to be loaded through the e-wallet mobile payment system either online or at a ticket counter at any station. Passengers have the option of topping up the e-wallet at ticket counters or on the IRCTC website using a credit or debit card, the official said. The App-based ticketing system was tried out in the Mumbai suburban sector on a pilot basis.
launching E-Samiksha, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu called it a very good beginning and now each and every project implementation can be monitored on real-time basis. “We want to monitor the progress of every project whether small or big as we are accountable to Parliament and people,” Prabhu said.
Apart from budget-related projects, the E-Samiksha can also be used for monitoring the infrastructure target and board meeting follow-up. According to a Railway official the E-Samiksha software has been developed to make it a highly interactive web-based, user-friendly and customised system. The portal will mainly focus on Budget Review, Board Meetings, Zonal Railway Review, Infrastructure Targets and Project Implementation Review.
Designed by NIC, the software is currently being used by Cabinet Secretariat, PMO and other Ministries for monitoring progress implementation of various programmes and follow-up of meetings.