New Delhi: The Railways has developed a mobile application to detect fake or tampered unreserved tickets. With the help of this software, Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) will be able to identify these tickets immediately.
According to a letter from Centre for Railways Information Systems (CRIS), a copy of which was accessed by ETV Bharat, it has developed TTE Android App for live verification of tickets booked through Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS). In the app, an option is available to feed the UTS number of tickets and get the details verified from the server. Using this option, tickets issued through all points of sale (PoS) can be verified.
TTEs can also scan the encrypted QR Code printed on the paper ticket (thermal stationery) and validate it. After scanning the QR code, TTEs can further click the ‘Check with Server’ option to verify ticket details from the server, the CRIS letter states.
The updated version of the app has already been shared with all Zonal Railways’ consoles for electronic verification of UTS tickets.
A senior railway official said the move has been initiated after continuous complaints of fake or tampered tickets were received from various stations which was putting a dent on railways’ exchequer every year.
The App will help to curb use of fake or edited tickets and identify the persons indulging in such acts. Now, TTE will be able to verify the ticket immediately and slap spot fine if it is found to be fake.
All TTEs have been given HMT machines for ticket verification. This app is preinstalled in it. As soon as the UTS number of the ticket is fed to the app or the QR code is scanned, the details of the ticket will be fetched to check its genuineness. The app also also has an option to validate the ticket after verification.
There is an option to verify tickets through colour codes. Under this, the validity of the ticket can be checked through the option of colour check menu. If the colour of the UTS ticket displayed on the mobile screen is different from the colour prescribed by the railways for mobile UTS tickets for that day, the fake ticket will be detected immediately and the passenger will have to pay a fine.
CRIS caters to about 2 crore passengers daily and sells about 25,000 tickets are per minute apart from handling more than 20 crore queries on train running status, arrival and departure.
