The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has said that hand-held terminals will be provided to Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs), which can be used for verification of passengers and downloading charts. This system will help the Railways to move towards paperless ticketing and charting and expedite finalization of refund claims apart from saving of paper.

 Presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today Shri Prabhu said, Railways is also exploring the idea of extending the facility of SMS on mobiles as a valid proof of travel for PRS tickets as well.

 He said, an integrated customer portal is being put in place, which will be a single interface for the customers to access different services. Seamless navigation would be possible across different websites of Railways.

Paperless ticketing enabled: hand held terminals for TTEs and SMS as valid travel proof streamline verification and refunds. Provision of hand held terminals to Travelling Ticket Examiners enables on board verification and electronic chart downloading to advance paperless ticketing, streamline ticket checks, and expedite refund processing. The proposal to accept mobile SMS as valid digital proof of travel for PRS tickets, together with an integrated customer portal, centralizes digital passenger authentication and access to services.