Bhubaneswar: Smaller stations like Vani Vihar, Barang, Mancheswar will be known by Bhubaneswar, the nearby city. Similarly Hirakud station by Sambalpur city.
For the convenience of passengers’ identification of small stations with popular areas/cities, Indian Railways has adopted an innovative approach of linkingPopular Area with station name. This new approach would yield better planning of journey and personalized passenger experience in ticket booking on website and Mobile app. It would also facilitate tourists as station search will get easier. Also, better connectivity will be available for passengers. This facility will be available from Friday (21.07.2023)
Small stations are linked with popular cities/areas like Sarnathhas been linked with Banaras, Sabarmati has been linked with Ahmedabad, Panvel has been linked with Mumbai etc.
As many as 175 popular city/area have been mapped with 725 stations.
This initiative also includes linking of satellite city to connecting railway stations – eg., Noida to New Delhi. Sometimes, Local/ popular names are different from railway station names leading to confusion while journey planning hence linking will eliminate confusion.
To accomplish the objective,application changes in technology have been done and 175 popular city/area have been linked with 725 stations.These changes have been incorporated in the journey planner station search of e-ticket booking website.The functionality shall be displayed on the journey planner and electronic reservation slip of the ticket.
Benefits to Passengers:
Better and Personalized Experience for passengers in rail journey planning
Tourist Convenience
Ease of station search for tourists
Places of tourist importance e.g., Kashi,Khatu Shyam, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Vaishnodevi etc. mapped to nearest station.
Better connectivity
Linking of satellite city to connecting railway stations – eg., Noida to New Delhi
Regional Importance & pride for citizens: popular city name associated with a railway station gives a sense of pride and ownership to the citizens.
The functionality will provide ease of communication in case of change in station due to operational reasons e.g., if a scheduled station is changed due to operational/ maintenance activity – journey planner will show alternate station in search:
e.g., Train 19031 [Ahmedabad to Jaipur] is planned from Asarva instead of scheduled station Ahmedabad. Asarva will be shown in journey planner on input Ahmedabad – currently this activity is done manually.
Further, MIS (Management Information System) generated will enable better planning of new trains and station amenities.
