New Delhi, April 22 (IANS): Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Wednesday launched a mobile application for paperless unreserved ticketing.

According to the railway ministry, the pilot project started Wednesday covers 15 stations in the southern region and will be extended to the entire country in phases.

The minister said the Indian Railways is committed to ‘operation five minutes’ - whereby a passenger can purchase an unreserved ticket within five minutes and that the pilot project's launch is the first step in that direction.

"It (mobile application) will allow the passenger to buy a ticket on the move and allow him or her to board the train with the ticket secured on his or her mobile phone, without any need for printing the ticket," Prabhu said.

According to Ajay Shukla, member traffic, railway board, the unreserved ticketing system is an important revenue generating system developed by CRIS (centre for railway information systems).

He said that nearly two crore passengers obtain unreserved tickets daily through nearly 11,470 counters at 5,836 locations generating about Rs.52 crore of revenue per day.

The application is being rolled out as a pilot project between Chennai's Egmore and Tambaram suburban section of southern railway covering 15 stations.

The application features provide necessary on-screen alerts to guide the passenger during the booking process.

The railways further said that the ticket booked in paperless mode cannot be cancelled in order to prevent claiming of refund after travel.