Lok Sabha Question No. 1562 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Ticket Touts
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Rampreet Mandal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1562 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.11.2019

## TICKET TOUTS

## †1562. SHRI RAMPRIT MANDAL:

## Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  it  is  a  fact  that  the  touts  get  the  rail  tickets  booked  in advanced especially in the Bihar bound and Eastern India bound trains;
- (b) if so, the number of touts arrested for hacking the software relating to Tatkal booking system of railways during the last three years; and
- (c)  the  measures  taken  by  the  Railways  to  streamline  the  reservation system and rationalize the fares during the last three years?

ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (c):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1562 BY SHRI RAMPRIT MANDAL TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 27.11.2019 REGARDING TICKET TOUTS.

(a) and (b): The ticketing systems over Indian Railways are designed to provide services to a diverse set of passengers in a user-friendly and transparent  manner.  In  order  to  enhance  passenger  convenience  and provide sufficient time for making travel plans, the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) for booking of reserved tickets has been kept at 120 days. Also, with a view to meet the urgent travel requirements of passengers who have to travel at short notice, Tatkal scheme has been introduced. The reserved tickets can be simultaneously booked across online and offline ticketing channels on a first-come-first-served basis on all trains.

Further,  the  demand  for  reserved  tickets  over  Indian  Railways  is  not uniform. It varies across different sectors and seasons. During the peak rush  period  such  as  festival  season  and  vacations,  demand  outstrips supply and the reserved accommodation in popular trains gets exhausted  within  a  short  period.  In  such  times,  some  instances  of misuse of the reservation system including the Tatkal facility have been detected. In such cases, action is initiated against the persons found to be  involved  in  such  irregularities. During 2016,  2017,  2018 and  2019 …2/-

(upto October), the number of cases registered against touts along with action taken against them is as under: -

| Year                |   No. of cases registered |   No. of persons arrested |
|---------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------|
| 2016                |                      2082 |                      2441 |
| 2017                |                      1859 |                      2060 |
| 2018                |                      2843 |                      3192 |
| 2019 (upto October) |                      2990 |                      3511 |

In  the  year  2019,  massive  and  intensive  drives  have  been  launched against touts, especially touts engaged in procuring e-tickets.

(c): In order to streamline the reservation system and to curb ticketing malpractices, a number of preventive and punitive measures have been taken by Indian Railways. Some of the important initiatives taken in this regard are as under:

- (i) Instructions  have  been  issued  to  ensure  that  tickets  are  not booked on abbreviated names and full name of the passenger and the  surname  wherever  applicable  are  captured  at  the  time  of booking reserved tickets.

- (ii) Carrying of prescribed identity proof has been made compulsory for one of the passengers while undertaking journey in reserved class.
- (iii) Regular  checks  are  conducted  in  mass  contact  areas  such  as Passenger  Reservation  System  (PRS)  centres,  booking  offices, platforms,  trains  etc.  to  prevent  unauthorized  ticketing  activities including  the  use  of  scripting  software.  Such  checks  are  also intensified during peak period like festivals, holidays etc.
- (iv) Checks  conducted  at  Reservation  Offices  are  supplemented  by checks on the trains  to  detect  the  cases  of  transferred  reserved tickets i.e. persons found travelling fraudulently against accommodation actually reserved in the name of another passenger.
- (v) Surveillance at reservation offices is stepped up by installing Close Circuit Television at important PRS locations to keep watch on any possible misuse of reservation system.
- (vi) In  case  of  online  booking  of  tickets,  checks  have  been  applied  on minimum time required to enter the passenger details and CAPTCHA and  no  ticket  can  be  booked  before  35  seconds.  User  IDs  are checked on daily basis and those IDs found using malpractices like fast booking of tickets are deactivated.

- (vii) Setting a limit of booking 6 Railway tickets by an individual user in a month in case of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) portal. This limit has been revised to 12 Railway tickets in a month for those individual users who have linked their IRCTC user ID with their respective Aadhaar number and ensured that at least one of the passengers in the passenger list is verifiable through Aadhaar.
- (viii) The authorized agents of IRCTC have been restricted from booking tickets during first fifteen minutes of opening of Advance Reservation Period (ARP) booking and Tatkal booking.
- (ix) General  public  are  also  educated  through  Public  Address  System and  media,  not  to  buy  tickets  from  unscrupulous  elements  and consequences of buying tickets from these sources.
- (x) Additional computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters  are  opened  during  peak  rush  period/festival  seasons  at various locations.
- (xi) In  order  to  cater  to  additional  demand  during  peak  rush  period, special  trains  are  run  and  carrying  capacity  of  existing  trains  is augmented,  keeping  in  view  the  pattern  of  traffic,  operational feasibility and availability of resources.
- (xii) Computerised  Passenger  Reservation  System(PRS)  has  also  been streamlined  by  making  a  provision  for  automatic  preparation  of

reservation charts at least four hours before the scheduled departure  of  train  and  to  allow  booking  of  vacant  accommodation thereafter  till  preparation  of  second  reservation  charts  through internet as well as any computerised PRS counter.

- (xiii) With  a  view  to  providing  confirmed  accommodation  to  waiting  list passengers and to ensure optimal utilization of available accommodation, an Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme (ATAS) known as 'VIKALP' has been introduced to cover all types of trains on all sectors. The scheme aims at providing waiting list passengers accommodation in alternate train having vacant accommodation.

Measures  to  streamline  reservation  system  and  deter  unscrupulous elements from misusing the reservation facility meant for genuine passengers is a continuous and an on-going process. As far as rationalization of fares is concerned, there is no increase in passenger fares in  2016-17,  2017-18  &  2018-19.  Further  measures  taken  to  implement variable fare are as follows:-

- (i)
- Introduction of flexi fare scheme in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains  with  effect  from  09.09.2016.  Further,  Flexi  fare  scheme  in Rajdhani,  Shatabdi  and  Duronto  trains  has  been  rationalized  with

effect  from  15.11.18  for  journey  commencing  from  15.03.2019  as under:-

- a. Discontinuation of Flexi fare scheme from 15 trains for two full years  and  from  32  trains  during  pre  defined  lean  period  of  3 months (February, March & August).
- b. Maximum cap of flexi fare scheme has been reduced to 1.4 times in all flexi fare applicable classes.
- c. Graded discount has been introduced in flexi fare trains, where class-wise occupancy is less than 60%, 4 days prior to scheduled departure of the train as under:-
4. (ii) Discounted  fare  schemes  have  been  offered  in  Shatabdi  trains running underutilised over 4 sections viz. Bengaluru-Mysuru, MysuruBengaluru,  Ahmedabad-Vadodara  and  New  Jalpaiguri-Malda  Town sections.

| Occupancy   | Discount         |
|-------------|------------------|
| Up to 70%   | 20% on last fare |
| 70 to 80%   | 10% on last fare |
| Above 80%   | Nil              |

- (iii) 10%  discount  is  given  on  vacant  berths/seats  after  preparation  of first chart.
- (iv) Powers have been delegated to Zonal Railways to declare AC-3tier as AC chair car during day time if running vacant on the section.
- (v) Power have been delegated to Zonal Railways for discounted fare to the extent of 10% to 25% in CC and EC class if the same is running underutilized for the particular section.
- (vi) Differential fare structure based on the facilities provided have been introduced  in  trains  like  Vande  Bharat  Express,  Tejas  Express, Antyodaya Express, Humsafar Express etc.

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