Online Reservation of Concessional Tickets
All persons including physically handicapped persons can book full fare tickets on payment through the internet. However, booking of concessional tickets requiring verification of the requisite concession certificate and also retention of copies of the said certificate issued/signed by the competent authority at the railway counter as documentary evidence is not done through internet. Accordingly, the facility of e-ticketing has not been extended to such cases where the physical document is to be verified at the time of booking on concessional fare in case of disabled persons.
Rail reservations through the IRCTC website are available from 00:30 hours to 23:30 hours. The services are not available for only one hour from 23:30 hours to 00:30 hours when the system is shut down for maintenance activity.
The working of the system is regularly monitored. The following measures have been taken to improve the functioning of the IRCTC website.
Capacity of the servers has been upgraded to meet demand. Internet Bandwidth has been increased to 450 Mbps. Agents have been restricted from booking Tatkal tickets and on the opening day of the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) between 0800 hours and 1000 hours.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
Wi–Fi Facility in Trains
Internet facility using Wi-Fi has been presently planned in three rakes of Howrah Rajdhani Express only, as a pilot project. It is a satellite based system using Wi-Fi for distribution of internet bandwidth in coaches and likely date for implementation of this system is September 25, 2012. The estimated implementation cost of the project is Rs. 6.30 crore.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri K. H. Muniyappa in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
Publication of 3 More Acts in the Gazzette of India
The following Bills, after having received the assent of the President on 27th March, 2012, have been published as corresponding Acts in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section-1, dated the 28th March, 2012:
1. The Appropriation (Railways) Bill, 2012 as Act No. 14 of 2012 ;
2. The Appropriation (Railways) No. 2 Bill, 2012 as Act No. 15 of 2012; and
3. The Appropriation (Railways) Vote on Account Bill, 2012 as Act No. 16 of 2012.
Source- PIB
