Now, no need for ID proof photocopy to buy Tatkal tickets

New Delhi, July 17: Modifying rules for purchasing Tatkal tickets, the railways ministry said on Friday that now there will be no need to furnish a photocopy of proof of identity while booking the ticket from a computerised reservation counter or furnish its number at the time of booking at the counter or through internet.

These modifications will come into effect by September 1, an official statement said here on Friday.

It added that as per the proposed changes, in case of ticket booked under Tatkal scheme, one of the passengers has to produce proofs of identity in origil during the journey, failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly.

The identity proof items include: voter photo identity card issued by Election Commission, passport, PAN card issued by Income Tax department, driving licence issued by RTO and photocopy identity card having serial number issued by central/state government.

The other items are: student identity card with photograph issued by recognized school/college, tiolised bank passbook with photograph, credit cards issued by banks with lamited photograph, unique identification card "Aadhaar" and photo identity cards having serial number issued by public sector undertaking of state/central government, district administrations, municipal bodies and panchayat administrations.

Meanwhile, passengers on the Indian Railways will now be able to give their rating of services while travelling following the launch of an IVR-based feedback collection drive, it was announced on Friday.

The feedback system questions passengers on six service parameters including the cleanliness of the station, platform, train, catering quality, air conditioning efficiency, food quality, punctuality of the train and the quality of bedrolls, the Indian Railways said in a statement.

However, of the six services, feedback is being sought for only two services immediately, the statement said without specifying which two.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been entrusted with the responsibility of obtaining the feedback through an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

Passengers travelling in the trains will be randomly contacted on their mobile phones and asked to award a zero for bad or unsatisfactory service, one point for satisfactory service and two points for good service.

On an average, 60 to 70 calls per day per train will be made and efforts were afoot to approximately make 100,000 calls per day to the passengers of mail and express trains, the statement said.