Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi on Friday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a wishlist ahead of the rail budget he is expected to present in the Lok Sabha in March.
Mr Trivedi is understood to have sought the Prime Minister’s indulgence to generally allow an infusion of capital for modernisation of the rail network, and particularly a liberal grant outside of the railway budgetary allocations.
The minister is hoping for the automation of signalling systems, strengthening of tracks, and procurement of modern rolling stock, all of which could require an investment of about `14 lakh crores over the next decade. Meanwhile, from February 1 the railways has begun treating the SMS received on your phone after you have booked an e-ticket on a par with the electronic reservation slip.
Now you don’t have to worry about carrying a print-out of your e-ticket; the Indian Railways is accepting a short messaging service (SMS) as proof of a valid train ticket.
However, at least one of nine prescribed photo identity cards must be produced in original along with the SMS.
The SMS should have been sent by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) or an authorised agency.
It must contain information such as the passenger name record (PNR), train number, date of journey, class, name/s and number of passengers, coach and seat number/s, and the fare. Also, the SMS should reflect the names of all passengers or the maximum number of passengers travelling on an e-ticket. Besides an SMS, the railways accepts a virtual reservation message (screen shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops or palmtops or mobile phones), mobile reservation message (for tickets booked on mobile phones) and print-outs as a valid proof of ticket.