India mulls e-ticket booking from Bangladesh

India’s railway ministry is planning to start the process of online train ticket booking facilities for Bangladesh, reports The New Indian Express.

It says talks have been initiated informally at Indian high commission level in Dhaka to begin the process.

This is said to be part of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to take forward the cashless economy drive to SAARC nations.

 “We are in the process of moving a proposal to provide online ticketing platform to Bangladesh, so that people can book their tickets for inbound trains without going to Railway stations,” an official at the Indian railway ministry was quoted to have said. “The system will be similar like we have in India.”

In India, the report said, about 58 per cent of the total tickets are booked online and the passengers who are booking online tickets, post demonetisation, are offered incentives in the form of `one million travel insurance free of cost.

The IRCTC, a subsidiary of the Indian railways, facilitates online ticket booking in the country and it has tied up with the GSAs (General Sales Agents) of Bangladesh that will facilitate booking of e-tickets of Indian railways.

According to the report, efforts are also on to renew all old rail links between Indian and Bangladesh, which existed pre-1965.

The government is also partnering with Japan, China, France and Germany to increase the speed of trains and introduce bullet trains in India, the report added.