Have Jules Verne lived today he might
not have dared to write his classic “Around the world in 80
days”,where he believed that with the opening of railways in India
it was possible to travel around the world in 80 Days.The railway
reservation system would have frustrated him and he would have given
up his adventurous idea.Despite being fourth largest railway network
in the world and carrying more than 10 billion passengers annually the
railway reservation system proves to be its 'Achilles heels'.Today
getting a confirmed ticket is an achievement that ought to become a
facebook status which would sure fetch numbers of 'likes' and
comments.IRCTC has been claimed by many as one of the best government
websites but all that glitters is not gold. Even though the booking
time under Tatkal quota has been reduced to 24-hours, but logging in
the IRCTC website during the early morning hours is simply next to
impossible. The site is not only content heavy but also takes a long
time in filling the form 'to' and 'from',and by the time you can see
the availability of seats tickets are sold out.The online
booking of tickets which took five minutes earlier, now consumes at
least two hours because of problems like network failure or slow
network and unavailability.moreover what is more interesting is that,
clicking the 'book' icon, which appears during e-ticketing on IRCTC's
webpage does not guarantee that the ticket has been actually booked.
At times, even after completing the entire booking procedure, the
website at the end displays message 'service currently unavailable'.
And, then one has to go through the entire process again.On the other
hand the demand and supply
gap has made the system dependent on touts.the pyramid structure in
which they operate incudes ticketing officials,agents as well as
security staff who are hand in glove with the people manning
reservation counter.
No doubt that the Indian railways has the lowest fares in the world and provisions such as advance booking,Tatkal reservation have been made to make it more user friendly yet it cannot be denied that corruption and 'red tapism' has made the traveling for a common man more arduous even before the actual journey begins.
No doubt that the Indian railways has the lowest fares in the world and provisions such as advance booking,Tatkal reservation have been made to make it more user friendly yet it cannot be denied that corruption and 'red tapism' has made the traveling for a common man more arduous even before the actual journey begins.