Indian Railway Ministry Agrees to sell Rail Tickets Through Travel Agents

By M.M.Khanna,C/O Services India, Chandigarh.
Buying railway tickets has become a great problem due to limited trains, enhanced number of travelers and congested Railway Stations in India. Keeping in view all this, the Indian Railway Ministry recently granted permission to sell tickets to the Travel Agents Association Of India, the largest Agents body to sell railway tickets for long distance journeys.

In an interview, a Senior Official of Railways addressed Media Persons that as of now the Railway Tickets used to be sold in India through Railways or its branches or Online Portals, which was resulting in long queues, involving lot of time to be wasted. The official further said that Railway Ministry had aimed to decongesting the process of ticket registration, which would impact mostly the inflow of foreign Tourist , who generally search for a comfortable system.

" Travel agents are happy about center's approval. Hopefully by the first week of September, our members should be ready to sell railway tickets. Planning of traveling for Foreign Tourists with in India and abroad on their arrival to India would be now within our reach because of issuing of Railway Tickets along with Air Ticket on a single platform" said Ashwini kakkar, President TAAI. According Mr. Kakkar the former Managing Director Of Thomas Cook in India, who had been currently heading M/S Mercury Travels, over 6 million journeys had been recorded every year in India and if association would attract one percent of this market this year, this would mean 60 million tickets. Mr. Kakkar also said that Travel Association Of India, had been lobbying with Railway Ministry for quite some time to grant permission to its members to sell railway trickets as this step would help Growing Of Tourism to be facilitated. Mr. Kakkar also disclosed that Travel Agents Association Of India, where 1500 agents had been enrolled as its members, is affiliated to the International Air transport Association and currently selling airline tickets worth almost Rs. 20000 Crore every year. Mr. Kakkar also explained that in addition, Travel Agents Association Of India, had been formed in year 1951, where their members had been enrolled from Air lines, Hotels Government Tourism Bodies.

August 31, 2006   Posted in: Airlines & Railways