By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Nearly three years after introducing the provision to change the boarding station for e-tickets online, the IRCTC extended the facility to paper tickets, as well, since Sunday. At present, only e-ticket holders are allowed to change their boarding station through the IRCTC portal or by dialling 139 before the preparation of the first chart, which means four hours before the scheduled departure of the train.
The facility is available for general and tatkal tickets, not for current bookings. Tickets that are booked after the preparation of the first chart and 30 minutes before the departure of the trains are called current booking tickets. Until now, passengers who hold paper tickets had to submit a written request at the train originating station 24 hours before the departure of the train for changing the boarding point.
Now, to change the boarding point for paper tickets, the user can visit www.irctc.co.in and on the home page, under the main menu, click on ‘more’, under which select ‘Counter Ticket Boarding Point Change’. The mobile number submitted at the time of booking will be validated through an OTP, after which the option for changing boarding stations will be displayed.
The provision for changing the boarding stations for e-tickets came into effect on May 1, 2019. “Like e-tickets, passengers are allowed to change the boarding station only once and only before the first chart is prepared,” a railway official said.
As per official data, more than 65 per cent of tickets are booked online.
However, the move will provide some relief to a section of passengers who book tickets at counters, say rail users. S Radhakrishnan of Avadi, a commuter, said, “During festival seasons or VVIP visits, city roads are congested. This new provision will benefit passengers residing in the outskirts of the cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, and other places.”
Another passenger, S Aravind Kumar of Thiruvalam, said, “When four or five people book tickets together but have to board from different stations, there is no provision for that. The system should be upgraded to allow one or two persons to change boarding station.”
