UTS allows passengers to buy unreserved tickets up to three days before the date of journey. The first phase, which will involve an investment of Rs 10.42 crore (Rs 104.2 million) is already underway with the commissioning of UTS counters in Indore and Ratlam.
Western Railways will set up 44 stations under the UTS scheme that will include Bandra Terminus, Borivli, Virar and Surat. The system which already exists in northern and eastern railway is a networked catering of all unreserved tickets, season tickets and automatic ticket vending machines that are to come in the near future. Cancellation of tickets can also be done one day in advance.
"With the implementationof UTS, we expect the eleventh hour queues to reduce as the system will be faster and more robust than the conventional printed card tickets," said R Gopala Krishnan, senior commercial manager who is handling the project.
To speed up the process, Western Railways plans to issue thermal ticket printers. "Thermal printers are undergoing tests in Hyderabad. Once approved, they will be incorporated in the system," said a Western railway spokesman.
Sources added that thermal printers will match up with the volume of traffic in the suburban railway.
However, they pointed out that suburban railways will not a tangible share of UTS counters, as the self printing ticketing machine (SPMT) the present system is much faster than UTS. UTS counters will be operational at Churchgate and Mumbai Central by mid-March.
UTS at Churchgate is a part of the two pilot projects in the Western suburban stations. There has already been a UTS in Mumbai on an experimental basis connected with the northern railway server.
The first phase is expected to be completed by June and then the second phase will start. For the second phase, sanctions for 15 stations have been received and 50 more are likely to follow.
