LAHORE - The Pakistan Railways, after a launch of electronic ticketing system last October, has initiated the duplicate ticket system - a major decision to facilitate the railways passengers in the country.

The approval came during a meeting of Pakistan Railways chaired by Khawaja Saad Rafique on Monday.

Earlier, if a passenger lost his rail ticket, he would have to purchase the new ticket again by paying full payment but now he would be issued the new ticket without repayment, official sources told The Nation.

They said a Double Ticket System is being introduced to address the growing number of complaints circulating on the social media. A high level committee was constituted to come up with suggestions to resolve issue of Pakistan Railways passengers.

During the meeting, the committee gave a detailed briefing to the railways minister on the new ticket system.

According to this system, Pakistan Railways will generate an SMS against every ticket to passenger on advance booking. With SMS, a special helpline number will also be issued.

In case of loss of ticket, this special number will help the passenger to get date, train, seat, or coach number from the concerned office after sending an SMS to them.

Passengers will also be able to travel on the basis of SMS issued to them. Duplicate tickets will be issued against 10 per cent charges. However, action will be taken against the wrong use of loss of ticket.

Pakistan Railways had launched electronic ticketing system in Oct 2016 to facilitate the passengers. After the launch of e-ticketing, the passengers are able to pay for their tickets online via credit or debit cards, online bank transfers or micro transactions like UBL Omni Easypaisa or Mobicash.

Officials said that train passengers can now use a mobile phone app to obtain tickets in the unreserved category, as the Pakistan Railways has introduced paperless ticketing in Feb this year.

Having booked a ticket using the app, a commuter needs not take a printout of the same and can show its soft copy on the cell phone to the ticket checker on train.

Apart from being a green initiative, the paperless ticketing system has also saved time of passengers as it allows them to avoid lining up at the ticket window.

Initially online ticketing system had been introduced in 48 trains, enabling passengers to book their seats from anywhere in Pakistan, according to the officials. They said that negotiations with companies providing cab services were in progress regarding provision of cab facilities to passengers to reach the nearby railway station.

Since the launch of e-ticketing on October 3, 2016, the department has earned Rs60 million from this service.

OUR STAFF REPORTER