It seems tech-savvy Mumbaikars are finally making use of railways' ticket-booking app. There has been a growth in the number of passengers and ticket sold through UTS app on both suburban and long-distance trains. The Western Railway (WR) has seen a robust growth of more than 250 per cent recorded in 2019-20 (up to May) as compared to the previous corresponding period. "The average passengers per day has increased from 55000 in 2018-19 to approximately 2 lakh in 2019-20," said Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway. Sources said that more than 3.64 crore passengers have used the UTS mobile app since November 2018, out of which approximately 3.48 crore passengers have booked tickets through the app on Mumbai suburban line itself. In May 2019, more than 9.62 lakh tickets were bought through the UTS app which marked the highest record earnings till date of Rs 6.02 crore. The main objective of introducing the UTS app is to encourage digital ticketing mode, to promote self-ticketing and to ensure that passengers can buy tickets without facing the ordeal of queues. Similarly, the Central Railway too has seen considerable growth in number of tickets sold through mobile app. The CR officials said that daily around 3.20 lakh people buy tickets through UTS. Commuters can purchase mobile tickets through Rupay, BHIM/UPI. There are Automatic Ticketing Zones at Andheri and Borivali stations. These special zones are well equipped with ATVMs for printing tickets and QR codes for paperless ticketing. Over a period of time, the contribution of mobile ticketing is slowly increasing. Around 4-5 years ago, there were barely 0.10% of commuters using mobile ticketing which now stands at 4% of the total sale of tickets.

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