NEW DELHI: A record 13.45 lakh rail tickets were booked online on the first day yesterday when the new rule of the railways came into force, allowing passengers to book tickets 120 days in advance rather than 60 days.

Railways have extended the advance reservation period to 120 days to deal with the malaise of touts cornering bulk tickets.

Now travellers can book train tickets four months in advance as the Railways has decided to extend the advance reservation period from 60 days to 120 days, with effect from April 1.

Officials said the decision also seeks to check the tout menace and facilitate genuine passengers to avail the reservation facility.

Buying a railway ticket online will be much easier as Indian Railways launched the modern e-ticketing system capable of generating about 7,200 tickets per minute compared to the earlier capacity of 2,000 tickets per minute.

Railways has made an investment of about Rs 100 crore in this IT initiative. The technology has been developed by Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an autonomous organization under Ministry of Railways.

The e-commerce initiative of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has come to a halt, with private partner Yebhi.com not extending its contract. The two had entered into a revenue sharing partnership about a year ago, with Yebhi's products sold under the IRCTC brand name.

IRCTC had plans to draw people who bought tickets on its site to shop online for products, including clothes and accessories, through its tie-up with Yebhi.

KOLKATA: Prodded by the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on lack of amenities for passengers, the Indian Railways has finally come up with a web-based complaint receiving system for immediate redressal of grievances. The Indian Railway Complaint Management System (IRCMS) has become operational and passengers can lodge complaints about services provided by zonal railways by sending SMSs to +919717630982.

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