K'buragi rail station gets cash, card operated ticket machines
Decreases burden on counter staff; eases crowd
Ravi S Balutagi
Kalaburagi: The Cash and Smart Card operated Ticket Vending Machines (CoTVM) have been installed at Kalaburagi Railway Station to facilitate the passengers travelling on general tickets.
The...
more... Kalaburagi Railway Station has three counters to dispatch general and platform tickets. But the increasing crowd of passengers had been forcing the people to wait for long hours to get the tickets. Moreover, it had been adding burden on the ticket counter staff too. Therefore, the Railways has installed two CoTVMs at the railway station from where the passengers could directly collect the tickets of their choice.
The Solapur Division had installed the machines and it received good response. Thus, it decided to install such machines in Kalaburagi and Shahabad stations too. The Kalaburagi station has six smart card operated ticket vending machines. Retired railway staff were employed for their maintenance.
They issue the tickets to the passengers using the smart cards. But the passengers themselves could not be operated these machines. However, with the installation of CoTVMs the passengers could directly buy the tickets using either cash or smart cards.
The passengers should follow the instructions on the CoTVM screen and select their options. Cash should be credited in the slot and the machine would issue the ticket. However, it accepts only ~ 5 coins, ~ 10 or ~ 20 currency notes. The excess amount would not be returned.
The daily travellers could use the smart cards. The smart card should be purchased at ~ 100. The passengers who purchase the smart cards could recharge them regularly as per their demand.
Number of people travel from Kalaburagi to Shahabad, Cittapur, Wadi and Sedum every day. More passengers travel to Hyderabad and Solapur too.
They travel on the trains which ever is running on their convenience. All of them should buy the tickets from the counters itself. Therefore, the rush was increasing, the railway officials said.
DH News Service
