South Eastern Railway's (SER) Chakradharpur and Ranchi railway divisions’ newly introduced mobile application UTS is drawing good response.

Passengers find it handy to use the app to book unreserved tickets.

Latest data available from SER’s Calcutta headquarters revealed that between July and December 2019, a total of 1,84,893 passengers at various railway stations under Chakradharpur division, including Tatanagar, used the mobile app to get unreserved tickets.

This earned revenues to the tune of Rs 44,68,205.

It’s a big leap from 2018 as records suggested that only 44,039 passengers used the app during the same period (July to December) of 2018. The revenue earned then: Rs 10,19,480.

Similarly, another important division of SER, Ranchi, had 1,76,453 passengers purchasing unreserved tickets through the app between July and December 2019. Here, the revenue earned was Rs 45,41,055.

The figures of the same period in the corresponding year were not that impressive. During the same time in 2018, the number of passengers using the app to book their tickets was a mere 45,388, and earnings were Rs 9,19,485.

The data of SER as a whole, which also comprises two other divisions Kharagpur and Adra in Bengal, revealed that the number of passengers purchasing unreserved tickets through the mobile app from April to December of the current financial year 2019-20 was 40,46,864, a growth of 209 per cent.

During the corresponding period of last financial year, April to December of 2018-19, only 13,09,629 passengers bought tickets through the app.

Railway earnings from this allied digital mode of ticketing (UTS on Mobile) have also shown a rise.

SER’s earnings from UTS on Mobile have been more than Rs 5.5 crore from April to December of the current financial year as against Rs 1.52 crore during the corresponding period of last fiscal, clocking a growth of 260 per cent.

Chief public relations officer of SER Sanjay Ghosh said that purchase of unreserved tickets by passengers using UTS on Mobile App was becoming more popular across areas covered by the South Eastern Railway.

“This is a unique facility for cashless, paperless and queue-free booking of unreserved tickets,” Ghosh said.

“Today, most people are comfortable with smart phones and have Internet and GPS facility. No surprise, use of this online ticket booking facility has shown a significant jump in all four divisions under our ambit,” Ghosh said.

Chakradharpur and Ranchi were the first two railway divisions of SER where the service was launched in July, 2018. The facility enabled passengers to book unreserved tickets through the mobile app (UTS on mobile) within a 2km- radius of suburban railway station and 5km radius of a non-suburban station.