INSTALLATION OF POS MACHINES AT 70 SUBURBAN STATIONS IN CHENNAI DIVISION

With effect from 1st January 2017, Ministry of Railways has provided a discount of 0.5% for season tickets being purchased through POS machines over suburban sections. This will be beneficial to the passengers who purchase quarterly,half yearly and annual season tickets. POS machines have been provided at all the 70 suburban stations for the convenience of Public

As directed by the Ministry of Railways, Southern Railway has installed additional PoS (Point of Sales) machines in 22 of its Passenger Reservation Centres  spread over Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  These 22 centres which have the highest number of PRS transactions, now offer the facility of cashless payment while purchasing reservation tickets. 

28 machines were already in use at 22 locations. Now, additionally, 40 more machines have been added to these 22 locations. Apart from these 22 locations, All 70 suburban stations in Chennai Suburban system have been provided with POS machines. This makes it 138 machines in 92 stations in Southern Railway.

Within a week of installation of PoS machines, the cashless transactions have increased  from 0.5% to 4.6%. And in the suburban sector, 6.2% of the seasons ticket passengers have switched to cashless transactions. The Railway plans to provide more PoS machines at all reservation offices in a phased manner.

Insurance Cover For Railway Passengers

An Optional Travel Insurance Scheme on a pilot basis for one year has been launched w.e.f 01/09/2016 for the railway passengers who book e-ticket through official website of Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Under the scheme reserved passengers who expire or are disabled permanently or partially due to train accident and untoward incidents during train journey will be entitled to sum assured as per the details given below. The objective behind the scheme is to maximize compensation to the passengers for the loss caused to them by train accident and untoward incidents.

IRCTC which is a wholly owned undertaking of Ministry of Railways has entered into an agreement with three Insurance Companies through Limited Tender, namely

(i) Shriram General Insurance Company Ltd.,

(ii) ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd., &

(iii) Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co. Ltd.

The amount of compensation to be given to passengers are as follows

(i) In case of Death- ₹ 10 lakh

(ii) Permanent Total Disability – ₹ 10 Lakh

(iii) Permanent Partial Disability – ₹ 7.5 Lakh

(iv) Hospitalization Expenses for Injury – ₹ 2 Lakh &

(v) Transportation of mortal remains – ₹ 10 Thousand.

The insurance cover will cover all reserved classes (SL, 1AC, 2AC, 3AC) and trains except passenger trains & Sub-Urban trains for tickets booked online on the IRCTC website. Personal belongings are not covered under the said scheme.

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 16 November 2016, Wednesday.a

Railway Projects With State Governments

As on 01.04.2016, 41 nos. of railway projects covering a length of about 5650 Km have been taken up on cost sharing basis with State Governments. The latest cost of these projects is ` 60,850 Crore and an outlay of ` 4,317 Crore has been provided in Rail Budget 2016-17 for these projects. All cost sharing projects are progressing as per availability of resources. Every railway project requires a number of clearances from various Ministries and Departments of State/Central Governments. These, inter-alia, include clearances inherent to land acquisition, forestry clearance and permission for crossing from departments like National Highway Authority of India, Public Works Department, Irrigation canals etc; and also clearances of Archeological Survey of India if the alignment passes in vicinity of a protected monument, local bodies for projects passing through urban areas, etc which are part of project execution. Process of seeking the approvals/clearances and the time taken therein is inherent to project execution time. Delays therein cause delay in completion of the entire project.

However, it is Railway's’ endeavour to complete the ongoing projects expeditiously.

Since Railway projects straddle over more than one State, projects are not sanctioned State-wise. However, during the last three years i.e. 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, & current financial year i.e. 2016-17, 5305 Kms of new lines have been included in Railway Budget.

Railways have a large throw forward of ongoing projects vis-à-vis availability of budget from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS). To overcome this financial crunch, Ministry of Railways has approached State Governments to form Joint Venture Companies (JVCs) jointly with Ministry of Railways to undertake mutually identified rail infrastructure projects for project development, resources mobilization and monitoring. Some other steps taken/being taken by the Government for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects in the country are (i) substantial increase in allocation of funds, (ii) prioritization of projects, (iii) delegation of powers at field level, (iv) regular coordination meetings with State Governments for land acquisition, relocation of utilities, etc.

This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 16 November 2016, Wednesday.