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Railways
opens call centres in Bangalore and Patna
30 November
2004, New Media
Indian
Railways opened two experimental call centres in Bangalore and
Patna. These call centres will offer service-related information
through a single three-digit number 139. Indian Railways also
plans to set up such centres in all major states.
Inaugurating
the call centre for Karnataka here, Minister of State for Railways
R Velu said the integrated train enquiry system-cum-call centre
would provide passenger-friendly services round-the-clock in three
languages -- English, Hindi and the local language. The other
centre set up under the three-month-long pilot project was opened
in Patna. The railways will finish setting up the call centres in
all metros and major cities in 12 -18 months, the minister said.
Presently
the service is available only on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)
phones but the Indian Railways plans to extend the service to
other private sector providers including cellular operators very
soon.
The
Karnataka call centre was set up at a cost of Rs 6 million, and
will be operated by RailTel Corporation of India, a public sector
enterprise under the ministry of railways, which looks after the
communications needs of the railways.
For
every call made by passengers, the BSNL will pay 15 paisa to
RailTel for recovering the cost of the call centres by the third
year of operations.
"With
about 40,000 passenger calls daily from all over Karnataka, we see
the volume of traffic going up exponentially in the coming months
once the call centre gains popularity," KK Bajpayee, managing
director, RailTel said.
Initially,
the computerised centre will provide information on reservation
status and arrival and departure for any train anywhere in the
country, including the position of moving train, accommodation for
any train, fares, concession and cancellation rules and
information on special trains, Bajpayee added.
The
railways are in talks with cellular operators for extending the
service to mobiles, including SMS (short messaging service).
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