Daily News & Analysis
  
MUMBAI, Feb 1: The pesky cell phone is set to do what a large, whirring fleet of Coupon Validating Machines (CVMs) are still grappling with - saving time of over seven lakh daily railway ticket buyers on the suburban railway networks of Mumbai.

Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN), a city based think-tank, claims to have devised a system where commuters can buy a ‘virtual’ ticket for local train travel using the commonplace Short Message Service (SMS) technology.

After a comprehensive survey of 30 railway stations on the central and western line, MESN found that only 51per cent CVMs are in perfect working condition and 19 per cent have been stolen.

The system enables the passengers to send an SMS to a short code (like xxx) indicating the starting point and the destination of the journey and receive a ‘virtual’ ticket in the form of a text message on their cell phones.

“The method of payment for the service can be worked out in two ways,” says Joshua D’souza of MESN.

“The amount can either be deducted from the prepaid account of the cell phone user or clubbed with his monthly cell phone bill. The other option is to give each user a separate account that can be topped up by the user as the need arises.”

Wouldn’t that mean that the same ‘SMS ticket’ can be forwarded to multiple cell-phones for limitless travel free of cost? “That cannot happen as the ticket checker has to simply check the sender of the SMS ticket, which has to be the railways. Miscreants can be easily caught,” says Rishi Agarwal of MSEN.

“Even if you land up in a random check after you have lost your phone carrying the SMS ticket in a crowded compartment, the ticket checker can easily confirm the ticket purchase by sending an SMS from his phone using a special access code that is a part of the system,” he adds.

The group has discussed the idea with a leading cell phone provider in the city and the response was ‘positive’, they claim. But the railways, without whose approval the plan cannot be implemented, are yet to give the system a go-ahead.

“It’s a win-win situation for the railways as there are no hidden infrastructure costs like training the staff, installing hardware to be borne. We have presented the idea to the railway authorities and are awaiting a response. Once they agree to implement the system, the operational problems can be looked into,” says Agarwal.