New Delhi: With an aim to bring greater transparency for train passengers, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had in February launched a new feature on the IRCTC website enabling passengers to view the reservation chart and vacant berths online.
Addressing a press conference Goyal had then said: "It is another step to introduce transparency in the system and to add comfort to the travel experience of the passengers."
He further said the introduction of the new feature will end the practice of searching for a ticket collector in the moving train.
The new feature introduced in the ticketing system is "dynamic" which will keep upgrading itself as the train proceeds towards its destination and make it more transparent as passengers can see the real time availability of berths, he added.
According to a Railway Ministry official, the new interface will give graphical representation of the train coaches and berth-wise accommodation status on the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) website, IANS reported.
The website of the Indian Railways will show the seating layout with different colours to show the seats that are booked, vacant and partially booked.
The system displays the coach layout of nine classes used in the reserved trains of the Indian Railways and more than 120 different coach layouts have been incorporated, the news agency reported.
This feature displays class-wise and coach-wise fully vacant berth availability information as per the first chart of the train, which is prepared four hours before the train's departure.
If the second chart is also prepared, then the option to view the details of vacant berths available at the time will be displayed. The second chart is prepared about 30 minutes prior to the departure of the train to accommodate the information of current reservations and cancellations done after the first chart.
Both the charts will get updated for every charting location as the train heads towards its destination. In addition to this, a user will also have the facility to view the exact position of the berth allocated to a PNR in the graphical coach layout during PNR enquiry.
IANS reported quoting, Girish Pillai, Member, Traffic, Railway Board, that the new feature will be available for passengers travelling in Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains.