Airport-like boarding passes for train passengers at Prayagraj railway station

As part of a move to promote contactless ticket checking due to the spread of Covid-19, North Central Railway authorities have started a first of its kind airport-like boarding facility at Prayagraj railway station.

Train passengers arriving at the junction station are first taken to a boarding hall with four new check-in counters. These counters are fully contactless keeping in view the safety of passengers due to the coronavirus crisis, Ajit Kumar Singh, CPRO, North Central Railway, said.

Tickets and passenger's identity cards are checked using webcam connected to a computer available with the ticket checking staff. For communication between passenger and ticket checking staff, microphone and speakers are provided on both sides physically separated through glass partition wall of the counter.

This technology not only ensures contactless ticket checking to safeguard passengers and railway staff but also helps in identifying vacant berths in a train which are then relayed to next station for better availability of berth to passengers.

Thermal scanning process is also being integrated to this system to make it comprehensive and single checkpoint for passenger for entry in the station.

Besides these standard arrangements, innovative concepts are also being tried out for efficient handling of passengers with proper social distancing and minimal physical contact.

One such system for automatic QR code based ticket scanning has already been implemented at Prayagraj Junction station of North Central Railway since June 1.Railways also said that 30 AC special trains from May 12 and 200 special trains from June 1 have been started of which 26 AC special and 100 other special trains have stoppage at different stations over NCR including 2 originating specials between Prayagraj-New Delhi and Kanpur-New Delhi.