The IRRS

The title might have confused you!!! you might have asked yourself once-what is this all gonna be about!...But like always a slight tinge of uncertainty should be there, which should keep on giving oil to the flame of curiosity!!!

Agreed!!!

The IRRS is something, I am sure 95% of us might have come across atleast once...or should I say 100% because as I un-drape the curtains over the topic, the first thing that's sure is you all gonna curse (and/or swear-will u?) me & the second, that you'll say its 100%.

So with the hopes of no curses (and/or swears).......

The Indian subcontinent is one big not-easily manageable place. One thing that has helped in binding it, inspite of all these diversities and disparities existing, is The Indian Railways. Its such a big entity that it has a separate budget being presented for it, every year. But let the point of the allocated budget being amiably used a different person's concern, the point I want to bring out here is how easy it is to use this "people-connecting" means!!

Since half of the curtain has been un-draped, let me bring the topic into limelight..Its The Indian Railway Reservation System or IRRS for short.

This topic has been in concern to me since long until recently I saw something which just brought another side of the Garden City-Bangalore.

Being an Indian Railways patron for the past 5 years (once I tried being the pigeon in Indian skies also..read it at My First Air Flight @ http://my-first-air-flight.blogspot.com), the Indian Railways Reservation System has been one thing I have been coming across everytime I need to travel. I have been to Ludhiana, Chennai and a few more Railways Reservation counters apart from Bangalore and Calicut (Kozhikode of Indian Institute of Management & Regional Engineering College fame), which presented to me an entirely different scene and hence finally made me put down something which was in my head since long.

Talking about the Ludhiana and Chennai (as seen by me in October 2001), in the Indian Railway Reservation Office, there are different counters with a separate enquiry counter. All counters except the enquiry cater to reservation but you have to stand in long queues for hours with a reservation form in your hand for getting your ticket/seat reservered. At the Ludhiana station, I saw a separate counter for ladies and senior citizens but there too, was a long queue of the reservation seekers.

The Reservation Office I got a chance to visit in Bangalore, the one in Koramangala, had a similar situation but what similarity it bred was making it worse and painful for those in the queue; and a mere mock for those who saw it for the first time. As I wrote earlier, the Ludhiana and the Chennai counters had people standing in a queue, but here it was a mixture. There were very few chairs and few people of the queue were able to sit on those, the rest stood in a queue that continued once all the chairs were occupied. Everytime one of the counters got ready to serve another of the reservation seekers, the people seated on the chairs drifted by one place and now a person standing in the queue can seek solace on the chair....This process continued....I found this too too strange.

What kind of arrangement is this?

Just imagine yourself shifting from one chair to another as the persons ahead of you in the queue get served (or just been given the kind of treatment that can't be written, not here but I surely found that at the Ludhiana counter, where the reservation clerk didn't even consider that he has to be polite when he's talking to a lady). I underwent through that shifting and drifting....and that too to get a ticket cancelled....with not even the full refund being given to me for that!!!!-an hour and a half to be exact, around 1 hour in the queue and the rest sliding on the chairs (whatever amount I was getting, it can't be atleast left with the guys across the windows). I thought when my turn came, I wouldn't even leave a single penny with the clerk, which they very often tend to keep, in excuse of not having the change.

Now what picture I saw at the Calicut Railway Reservation Office, if is painted in the other offices too will lead to the redressal of general people's half grievances. There were four counters, out of which three used to be working (that's a rule), and a special counter for enquiry. For reservations, one needs to fill a form and then take it to the enquiry counter (which is the only one out of the five having a queue, which too gets cleared up real fast), where the clerk will give you a token number. Each counter has a token number being flashed along the counter window which tells the token which is being processed. There are limited chairs there also, but what is usually followed is, one can guess when his token will be called for service, taking into consideration the speed at which the tokens are being served at the counters. This allows you to go and finish off some of the other pending chores you have.

Now a question definitely arises, what if the token number is called when you were away?

Perfect. This too has been taken care of.... You can still claim your token if this has happened with you, but only within next 30 tokens (your token number +30 : should not have passed)....something done to avoid people to take tokens at the start of day and come at their leisure.

I don't think this has been implemented even in New Delhi Railway Reservation Office, when it is so successfully running in a town like Calicut (Kozhikode). There can be shortcomings of this system too, like everyone has...But what I see is immense convenience to the train-travelers in terms of time, energy & effort especially those who don't know/can't afford the method of online booking (available @ http://irctc.co.in with very nominal charges & doorstep delivery but only booking, no cancellation).

So what do you say, can be done, in this regard, so that the facities being given (like Train Reservation Counter), jaisa kaha jata hai.....Bhartiya Rail ke saujanya se (translated: like its said: courtesy Indian Railways), are properly utilized, little modified for better convenience of me, you and all others for whom the Railways is like a "lifeline".


(Original Blog @ http://irrs.blogspot.com/)