Ticket counters to be shifted outside City railway station

Ticket counters to be shifted outside City railway station

THe Hindu

It will provide more waiting space for passengers

# Advanced electronic ticket vending machines installed
# Platform tickets to be available through SMS soon

Bangalore: The ticket counters in the City railway station will be shifted to outside the station building in three months to provide more waiting space for passengers, Mahesh Mangal, Divisional Railway Manager, Bangalore Division of South Western Railway, said here on Monday.

Inaugurating two advanced electronic ticket vending machines at the station, Mr. Mangal said that shelters would be provided for the ticket counters and congestion in the existing waiting area would be reduced with this move.

Mr. Mangal said that platform tickets would be available through SMS in the next one month. "People can send a message to the number 3939. They will get a code that they can come here to the station and type in the vending machine to get a ticket. Four rupees will be charged to the person's phone account," he said.

The two new platform ticket vending machines are situated outside the main entrance of the building. Procured at a cost of about Rs. 2 lakh, they are an improvement over the existing platform ticket vending machines. People can drop coins of 25 paise, 50 paise, Re. 1, Rs. 2 and Rs. 5 denominations for a ticket. The catch, however, is that the machine is not geared at returning any change if you have put in extra money.

Four more machines would be put up at other entrances of the station, he said. The facility would be introduced at other stations in the city later, he said.

No stoppage

"We cannot stop trains at Bangalore East. It will delay trains by at least 7 to 8 minutes," said Mr. Mangal. A few weeks ago, residents staged a protest demanding that Brindavan and Lalbagh Express trains stop at Bangalore East.