CHENNAI: Southern Railway to introduce a new mode of paperless mobile ticketing for UTS tickets called "Book Activate And Travel (BAAT)", which is being launched at Chennai Central Railway station as a trial measure from April 7, 2018.
After the launch of UTS mobile application for the booking of unreserved tickets in 2015, about 3 per cent of suburban tickets have been booked through mobiles, crossing one million in January 2018.
Available on Google Play store, the smartphone application helps passengers to buy two types of tickets — paper ticket and paperless ticket. In case of a paper ticket, the passenger can book the ticket from the application and can take a printout of the ticket from the ATVM machines, as well as UTS counters at stations.
Booking paperless tickets on mobiles normally requires GPS and Internet connection in the phone and for booking paperless ticket, the passenger has to be at least 25 meters away from the railway track and station platforms but within five kilometres from the station. This facility is provided through 'Geo-fencing'.
