In an effort to promote digital payment, the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) have so far installed 122 point of sale (PoS) machines at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) under the Mumbai division, officials said.
Under the first phase, the CR and WR have set a target of setting up 130 PoS in the division. The remaining eight machines will be installed shortly.
"As part of the first phase, we have set a target of installing 75 PoS at different PRS centers in Mumbai division and we have successfully set up 69 machines so far. Rest of the machines would be set up shortly," a senior official from the Commercial Department of CR said.
A WR official said, "Out of the 55 PoS that we had planned to install at the PRS in Mumbai division, we have so far installed 53 PoS. Two others would be installed by tomorrow-- one each at Meera Road Station and Nandurbar stations." "Now, our passengers can pay via debit or credit cards and need not to carry about carrying cash at ticket counters," he said.
Indian Railways has tied up with the State Bank of India (SBI) for this exercise, which has also stepped up its efforts in installing the PoS machines.
Some of the suburban stations under the CR where PoS have been installed are CST, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Thane, Kalyan, Panvel, Vashi etc, while those under the jurisdiction of WR, include Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Borivali, Andheri, Surat, Bandra Terminus and Bhayander.
The CR said, "As a part of first phase, we are focusing on PRS, while in the subsequent phases these machines would be stalled at unreserved ticketing counters (for suburban services) and parcel offices. We have to become cashless all the way in a very short time and we are geared up for this.
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