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If you also travel by booking digital unreserved (general/unreserved) tickets from your mobile phone to avoid long queues and crowding at the ticket counter of the railway station, then this news is an important warning for you. Indian Railways has extremely tightened its rules to prevent misuse of digital unreserved tickets and has issued an important advisory for passengers.
Railways has officially clarified that at the time of ticket checking during the journey, only the original digital ticket available within the Rail One app on the registered mobile phone will be considered valid. If a passenger shows the screenshot, WhatsApp copy or PDF of the ticket to the TTE, it will be declared completely invalid and will be considered as traveling without ticket and heavy fine will be charged as per Railway rules.
Show screenshot: Woman passenger faces heavy burden: Know the incident of Korba-Raipur Express
This strict advisory of Railways has come after an actual incident that happened in Korba-Vishakhapatnam Link Express. A female passenger was traveling between Korba to Raipur. When the TTE reached him during ticket checking, he showed a screenshot of the ticket sent by his brother on WhatsApp.
When the railway officials investigated that ticket in depth, a major fraud and irregularity came to light:
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Booking after train departure: That train left Korba station in the afternoon. at 4:10 had already left, whereas the ticket shown in the screenshot was in the evening at 4:45 (35 minutes after the departure of the train) was generated.
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Lack of registered devices: That digital ticket was not even available on the traveling woman’s own mobile or registered number.
Due to all these serious technical flaws and violation of rules, TTE declared that screenshot illegal and collected the entire penalty for traveling without ticket from the lady passenger on the spot.
4 most important rules of digital unreserved ticket
If you book a general ticket through the Rail One ($Rail\One$) app, never forget these 4 rules:
1.Show original ticket within the app:rule 1.
At the time of ticket checking, you will have to open the ‘Rail One’ app live on your phone and show the ticket within it. Any type of photo, screenshot or copy forwarded on WhatsApp will be considered completely invalid.
2.Same phone and registered number is mandatory:Rule 2.
Digital unreserved tickets will be valid only on the same mobile handset and registered SIM/number which was used at the time of booking. You cannot travel by transferring it to someone else’s phone.
3.It is necessary to book before the train opens:Rule 3.
Tickets should always be booked well before the time of departure of the train from the boarding station. If the train has left the station and you generate the ticket for a running train or later, it will be considered illegal despite it appearing in the app.
4.Passenger’s responsibility to keep phone charged:Rule 4.
It is the sole responsibility of the passenger to keep the phone switched on and adequately charged during the journey. The excuse of ‘battery dead’ or phone being switched off will not be valid in front of TTE and you may have to pay a fine.
Is this rule applicable to reserved/sleeper/AC tickets also?
To ensure that there is no confusion among the passengers regarding this new rule, Raipur Division Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM) Awadhesh Kumar Trivedi has completely clarified the situation.
He clarified that This strict rule applies only to digital unreserved (Unreserved/General) tickets booked through the ‘Rail One’ app. This rule will not affect reserved tickets of sleeper or AC class. The reason for this is that the names of the passengers are already recorded in the chart of reserved tickets and their identity is easily verified by the TTE through valid ID proof issued by the government (like PAN card, driving license etc.), due to which there is no scope for fraud.
Invalid Ticket and Fine Status (Quick Info)
If you do not have the Original App Ticket on a valid device, a minimum fare of ₹250 depending on distance and appropriate penalty may be charged under relevant sections of the Railways Act.