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WR plays ‘housie’ to attract commuters to fast-ticketing counters

Soon after the pilot, WR extended the facility to Bandra, Dadar and Vasai Road stations.

To catch the fancy of commuters, Western Railway (WR) has taken to popular game ‘housie’ to attract more commuters to its fast-ticketing counters by terming the fixed denomination counters as ‘jaldi 5’ and ‘jaldi 10’.

The pilot project, which started in February this year at Borivali and Andheri railway stations, has yielded results, with WR now planning to expand its fixed denomination counters to other suburban stations, especially with multiple ticketing counters.

“We are going to replicate the counters at Virar and Bhayander in the near future and at other big stations handling large volumes of commuters,” said Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, WR.

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Soon after the pilot, WR extended the facility to Bandra, Dadar and Vasai Road stations. With over 78 per cent of the total card tickets sold in the denomination of Rs 5 or Rs 10, WR earmarked one counter each at Borivali and Andheri stations to sell tickets of denomination Rs 5 and Rs 10 to commuters. The Rs 5 counters were marked red and Rs 10 yellow for easier identification. A similar facility was started by Central Railway at Kalyan and Thane.

A study of the project on WR has revealed that unlike 160 tickets per hour sold by ordinary counters, the fixed denomination counters sold 250 tickets per hour. “In comparison to three tickets a minute, the fixed denomination counters are selling six per minute, which is really good,” said Hemant Kumar, general manager, WR.

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“On one occasion, 350 tickets an hour were sold by one of the counters,” said Kumar, adding that the counters are benefiting commuters as well as the administration.Another senior railway officer said, “It helps booking clerks to dispense tickets quickly, as they have to provide tickets of the same denomination.”The officer said that WR is trying to work on popularising the counters by putting up more explanatory posters at the stations where the facility exists.

“There was some amount of confusion among passengers initially. So we are now putting up boards that clearly indicate journeys that cost Rs 5 and those that cost Rs 10,” said an official.

First uploaded on: 21-07-2014 at 00:54 IST
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