Bhubaneswar, June 11: Train passengers using android phones will shortly be able to post complaints and suggestions through a mobile application.
The East Coast Railway has planned to introduce the facility, as part of its complaint management system, before Nabakalebar.
The system is, however, already in use in some other railway divisions of the country.
It will consist of a web-based complaints and suggestions application on the railway portal indianrailways.gov.in, www.coms.indianrailways.gov.in and an SMS-based application on the number 9717630982.
Besides, the system will also be linked to the centralised public grievance redress and monitoring system, managed by the railway board.
The railway's chief public relation officer J.P. Mishra said the system would be in addition to the existing forum of complaint and grievance redress system.
At present, passengers lodge complaints by writing letters to railway officials, sending emails or making phone calls to the authorities, apart from personally visiting the office. The railway has public grievance cells in all zonal and divisional headquarters.
According to the new system, the railway board would monitor a complaint and allot this to the respective division. Then it would be assigned to the concerned railway functionary for redress.
"When a person lodges a complaint through the application, the passenger gets a unique complaint ID number, which one can use to track the progress of the complaint. Similar process is followed through the web-based and SMS-based complaint management," said Mishra.
Besides, people can also dial 138 for any railway related complaints.
A railway official said that while lodging complaints people needed to pinpoint the problem. Basic information such as name and number of the train as well as that of the station, coach and bogey number should also be provided, so that the authority could act fast.
"We hope that passengers will take advantage of the system and help us make the railway serve them better," said an official at Bhuaneswar railway station.
