Indian Railways gave a big announcement. There’s almost many people who book their tickets from ticket reservation centres instead of booking it online.
A 5 percent discount will be given to the passengers who book their tickets from the Railways counter. The five percent discount can only be available on the total value of basic fare subject to Rs 50 maximum. The price of the ticket should be more than a hundred to use this discount.
This discount scheme can only be availed to those railway passengers who will pay through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or BHIM for train tickets at railway countries.
There’s an increase in booking tickets by online methods which makes the tickets counters of less use. This step of the Indian Railways is to encourage cashless transactions and promote the use of ticket reservation centres.
This offer can be availed for another year till June 12,2022. The way to avail this discount is to visit the PRS reserved counter and book it with BHIM/UPI app and then pay with it. There will be a confirmation message post which the money will be debited from the account. The person at the counter will give you a print from the ticket.
There are no discounts on season tickets, unreserved single journey ones, reserved tickets, which are booked on an online platform. The discount is only valid at the counter until the first reservation chart is prepared.
To enable people to use their debit and credit cards, the railway installed a POS machine at reservation counters. The increase in digital means was out of bounds so this is considered as a smart way to move people back to the counter methods.
In the year 2018, approximately 66% tickets were booked online, which shows the need of paying in reservation counters so that it doesn’t become obsolete.
Also, with COVID-19 there’s less amount of travel and more online transactions. This move will encourage people to get tickets and also buy them manually at the reservation counters.
