Indian Railways is planning to introduce paperless tickets for Mumbai suburban by August 15. It will also introduce integrated ticketing for Mumbai suburban railway, Mumbai metro, BEST, Mumbai Monorail and shared taxi, according to Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Speaking at an investor conference at the BSE Convention Hall in Mumbai on Thursday, Prabhu said integrated ticketing would be a step towards an integrated transportation system in the city.

Elevated corridor Work on the fast elevated corridor – CST-Panvel elevated corridor and the Bandra-Virar premium corridor – is likely to begin by August 15. The Churchgate-Virar corridor has been split into two – Bandra-Virar and Bandra-Churchgate – besides installation of communication based train control (CBTC) between CST and Panvel on Harbour line.

The Railways plans to form a JV with the Maharashtra government to complete nine new projects worth ₹23,000 crore. They include Ahmednagar, Beed, Parli Vaijnath, Wardha-Nanded (via Yavatmal-Pusad), Wadsa-Desaiganj Aarmori Gadchiroli, Nagpur-Nagbhir Guage Conversion, Manmad-Indore, Gadchandur-Adilabad, Pune-Nashik, Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi and Baramati-Lonand.

Also on the anvil are plans to equip 15 railway stations of Mumbai with escalators, toilets and WiFi facility at the earliest. All these projects will be reviewed every three months with a monthly progress report.

The Railways has appointed a nodal officer for Maharashtra-related railway projects to speed them up.

How paperless ticketing works

The Railways will issue monthly season tickets on anywhere-to-anywhere basis at ₹800-1,000 a month, according SK Sood, General Manager, Central Railway.

Station premises will be equipped with instruments capable of scanning whether passengers are holding valid tickets based on mobile signals.

The technology will be offered by NPCI (National Payments Corporation) to Central Railway for ₹50 crore (2 per cent of the revenue generated).

Central Railway currently spends 12 per cent of its passenger earnings to dispense and check tickets, Sood said.

For other modes of transport (BEST, Monorail, Metro, share taxis) commuters will have to pay between ₹800 and ₹1,000 every month to buy a smart card.

Unused balance amount will be carried over to the next month. The railway monthly season tickets will not have the carryover facility, Sood said.

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