Railways to soon resume JTBS ticketing

Kolkata: In a bid to prevent overcrowding of passengers at the ticket counters, suburban train ticket booking facility will be available at Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Seva (JTBS ) units soon. At present, passengers can book tickets from the counters in the station premises. No daily tickets are being issued in advance.

"It (JTBS suburban train booking facility) will help save time and prevent crowding of passengers at the counters," said an official.

The suburban services resumed with 615 and 81 trains under Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER) respectively on November 11.

However, SER has increased the EMU services from 81 to 95 to maintain proper physical distance from November 17. During the pre-COVID- 19 period, over 1,400 trains were being run by ER and SER from Sealdah and Howrah stations respectively.

Sources in the ER said only 600 passengers are being allowed to travel at a time in a train, having total seating capacity of 1,200.

"With the restoration of EMU services in both Howrah and Sealdah Divisions, EMU locals are running smoothly catering to the transportation needs of the passengers," said the official.

Meanwhile, an elaborate campaign has been launched by ER—as part of the Jan Andolan campaign— to encourage passengers to maintain covid appropriate behaviour. From pasting posters bearing messages on precautionary measures against covid to playing jingles at different stations and distributing pamphlets among passengers, ER has taken up several initiatives to spread awareness against the novel virus.