Wait-listed passengers will soon get ticket booking status messages on
their mobile phones if their tickets get confirmed before journey.

A
senior Railway Ministry official said the wait-listed passenger will get a
SMS about the status of the ticket on the mobile phone number given at
the time of ticket booking.

Currently, one has to either dial the
enquiry number 139, or use the Internet to know the status of the
wait-listed ticket. Users can also get to know the status of their
tickets at stations.

“Once the SMS-based service is operational,
passengers will get the updated status of their wait-listed tickets
automatically,” the official said, adding “only those passengers will
get the message whose tickets get confirmed.”

CRIS, the technological arm of Railways, is making the software for the SMS-based service.

IRCTC
has already launched a system for booking tickets using mobile phones,
available across various platforms, including SMS-based ticketing
services. IRCTC launched its SMS-based ticketing from July, describing
the step as environment-friendly as no print-out is required.

A
senior IRCTC official at the time had said “mobile-based booking
provides the users ease and convenience of booking tickets from anywhere
and anytime. There will be no requirement of a printout because the
ticketing message will be considered as valid during the journey.”

As
per the requirement, one has to register the mobile number with IRCTC
as well as one’s bank. The bank provides MMID (Mobile Money Identifier)
and OTP (one time password) for authorisation of payment.

The
SMS-based ticketing service is described as very simple, with a
passenger required to type the train number, destination, journey date,
class and passenger details like name, age and gender on the SMS box.