The government has implemented an online ticket system to check in trains with the help of 100 per cent Hand Held Terminal (HHT) devices in four Zonal Railways. With the transparency in the ticket checking in place RSA-waiting railway passengers do not have to run after TTEs.

Passenger Reversal System (PRS) automatically sends information about vacant berths through SMS to the mobile numbers of the said railway passengers.

A senior Railway Board official said that under the pilot project, HHT devices were given to TTEs in premium trains Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto Vande Bharat. In view of its success, this device is being given in Mail-Express, Superfast, Janshatabdi, Garib Rath, and other passenger trains in 2022.

The official said that in the first phase, 10,500 HHTs have been given to TTE staff in 2022, and in the second phase, 18,000 HHTs. In four Zonal Railways Western Railway (Mumbai), Southern Railway (Chennai), South Eastern Railway (Kolkata), and South Central Railway (Secunderabad), 100 per cent of TTE staff has been given HHT.

Tickets for all the trains running from these four zonal railways have been started online through Checking HHT. Apart from this, tickets for trains passing through these zones are being booked from Checking HHT.

The HHTs are connected to the main server of the Railways. On uploading vacant berths by TTE in the e-reservation chart, PRS sends berth confirmation messages to RAC-waiting ticket passengers on their mobile numbers. Due to digitization, the ticket-checking system has become transparent. According to an estimate, 10-12 thousand RAC-waiting passengers are getting confirmed berths every day.

After the implementation of the HHT system, MPs and railway officials will not interfere in getting train berths. For passengers who did not board the train in the manual reservation chart, TTE used to give their vacant berths to the relatives of railway officers and MPs’ experts. But before the end of duty in HHT, TTE has to send all the information to PRS online. Due to this online booking will be possible if there is a vacant berth in the system.