After witnessing its worst times recently, Pakistan Railways has taken an interesting step to launch a mobile application in their efforts to make life easy for the travelers. The customers now have the liberty to select and book seats as per their convenience thus eliminating the need to visit the booking office.
Apart from online booking, passengers can now use their smart phone to keep track of the following for any train:
- Arrivals,
- Departures,
- Delay times,
- Expected travel time,
- Stop overs, and
- Payment solutions
In addition, the passengers can book their tickets on 48 trains and also view their payment information through this app.
While talking to media, Railways Minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique, said that this project took off soon after the remarkable success of their online ticketing initiative. E-ticketing has been churning out good money for the public entity as it earned Rs60 million only in a few months, Rafique confirmed Tribune.
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He expressed his views about the app by saying:
“In October last year, we launched the e-ticketing initiative that got immense appreciation from the public, passengers can avail this facility on 48 trains currently operating on main lines”
Rafique also revealed that Pakistan Railways has gone through a very tough time and it has not been easy to revamp the organization structure by using technology. Meanwhile, talented pool of workers and private companies did not show a lot of interest in this entity due to its notorious image.
More Upgrades in the Pipeline
Some more improvements are on their way with upgradation of German coaches on the top priority. Furthermore, out of the old German trains, almost 300 economy class coaches are expected to be upgraded to AC- Standard coaches.
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The cost of upgrading a single coach has been estimated to fall between Rs5-6 million. However, if the management plans to replace their old spare parts, the cost would mount to Rs12.5 million per coach. Nonetheless, these expenditures would increase the life span of each coach for another 12 years.
Working on the cost structure, the minister said:
“We are currently auditing on merit of the rehabilitation process of different coaches. We have to spend a huge amount on this project from our own resources and we are currently undergoing fiscal management”
Another plan is to collaborate with the Punjab government and invite some private firms to invest in building underpasses from level crossings in major cities. Hence, this will reduce their dependence on foreign investments.
Mr. Saad Rafique also said:
“We don’t want to depend on Chinese investments only; we welcome other mode of investments in different projects as the scale of the business is vast”
Do you think Pakistan Railways has taken a good step to launch a mobile app for its customers?
Source: ET
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