BHUBANESWAR: Now the passengers need not to visit booking counters of the station to purchase an unreserved ticket as the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has introduced the unreserved ticketing app ‘UTS’ to get the tickets online.Any smartphone user can download the app from the play store of his/her mobile phone. S/he should sign up first to use the mobile application. During the registration process, R-Wallet will be created. The user should recharge this mobile wallet through net banking, debit cards, credit cards or UPI (a real-time payment system). A person can save starting from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 as wallet balance.To book a ticket, a user has to log in to the app by giving log in ID as mobile number and m-pin (four digit received through SMS). Seven options will come on the screen including ‘book ticket’. After clicking on it, six options including quick booking, normal booking, platform ticket and season ticket will show on the screen. After selecting normal booking and putting necessary details of the journey, ticket will be generated in the app as a paperless ticket.“Ticket once generated cannot be cancelled or refunded. No advance ticket booking is allowed. Journey should begin within three hours of booking. Use ‘show ticket’ option to show the ticket to checking staff. This option will work even if there is no internet connection,” said Ajay Kumar Behera, principal chief commercial manager of ECoR.He said tickets can be booked from 20 metres off the station premises and up to 2 km. “In ECoR, the geo fencing boundary is 20 metres from railway track, where booking of tickets is not possible. According to the ‘geo fencing’ facility, railways have prevented booking mobile tickets in railway premises including platforms and trains. It is created to prevent ticketless passengers from booking tickets when they see ticket checking staff on trains or station area,” he added.Umesh Singh, general manager of the ECoR, while launching the app here said passengers will not worry for changes (small denominations) from now onwards. “It is not only convenient but also save time and energy of the passengers. It will also stop wastages of paper,” he added.He said Railways plans for providing some promotional top up after June 1 to increase its use.ECoR became the third zone in the country after Southern Railway and South Western Railway to introduce such app for its passengers. This app is developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems CRIS ), a society set up by the ministry of railways to look after information system of the Railways.ECoR sells around 3.74 lakh unreserved tickets every day. This app will reduce the huge queues in front of the booking counters during peak time in the morning and evening. It will be a great help for daily passengers travelling in intercity express trains across the ECoR zone, said a senior railway officer.

Stay updated with all the Latest Bhubaneswar headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.