Goenkarponn desk
PANAJI: South Western Railway is the first Zonal Railway to implement UTS Mobile App Ticketing (for other than Suburban trains) across the Zone in February 2018. Shri Piyush Goyal, the then Hon’ble Minister of Railways, launched this facility on 10th February 2018 at Belagavi in the presence of Late Suresh Angadi, the then Hon’ble MP of Belagavi and other dignitaries.
A press release issued by South Western Railway mentioned that since the introduction of the UTS mobile app, it has gained popularity, and a steadily increasing trend of transactions has been witnessed.
The sale of tickets through mobile App was 5.67 lakh tickets during 2018-19, which has increased exponentially to 13.43 lakh tickets during 2019-20, registering a 136.83% growth in the sale of Mobile App tickets over 2018-19. Similarly, the total number of Mobile UTS passengers during 2018-19 was 3.5 million, which has jumped to 7.6 Million passengers in 2019-20, registering a growth of 116 % in the Mobile Ticket passengers. The App had been rendered non-operational from Mar.2020 to Feb.2021 because of pandemic induced cancellation of passenger trains. In the current Financial Year, till November-2021, 4.98 Lakh passengers have been registered with UTS Mobile App Applications over SWR.
The percentage sale of Mobile App tickets vis-à-vis total UTS tickets is 0.72% during 2018-19 has increased to 1.81 % during the year 2019-20. In 2021-22 up to Nov-2021, the percentage sale of Mobile App UTS tickets was 2.31%, asserting a steady increase in the use of Mobile App by UTS passengers. The percentage of Mobile App passengers vis-a-vis total UTS passengers is 2.1 % during 2018-19, which has increased to 4.79 % during 2019-20 and even during this 2021-22 with 60% of passenger trains operational, the percentage of Mobile UTS passengers is 5.61 % vis-à-vis total UTS passengers travelled over SWR.
SWR has put in concerted efforts to enhance patronage of ticketing on Mobile App ticketing among passengers. UTS ON MOBILE Application can be downloaded from Google Play Store for Android Mobiles, Windows Store for Windows Mobiles and Apple Store for iPhone Users. Passengers have to get registered through Mobile Phone Application or website (https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in) by providing the Mobile number, name, password, gender and date of birth. On Successful Registration, Railway Wallet (R-WALLET) will be created in the UTS ON MOBILE Application. R-WALLET can be recharged through UTS Booking Counters, Mobile App or also through website (https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in).
Passengers can book Unreserved Journey, Season Tickets and Platform tickets using UTS ON MOBILE Application. Passengers can book paperless Unreserved Journey, Season Tickets and Platform tickets and travel without a hardcopy of the ticket or can book Paper ticket (Unreserved Journey, Season Tickets and Platform tickets) through application, for which a booking ID is generated and it can be get printed from the ATVMs or Booking Office.
Passengers will get a bonus of 3% of the recharge value at the time of recharge of the Railway Wallet(R-WALLET). Sanjeev Kishore, General Manager South Western Railway, said that the ‘UTS ON MOBILE’ App will promote CASHLESS transactions and ensure CONTACTLESS, hassle-free ticketing and is very convenient for the rail users.
Passengers are requested to make smart use of the provision of booking unreserved tickets through their Mobile Phones using UTS ON MOBILE Application and join hands with Indian Railway for Safe, Secure and comfortable journey. Users of the App are requested to verify the availability of trains before booking tickets on UTS App.
