Bhubaneswar: The facility of unreserved tickets in Odia language was launched by Union Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan here at Bhubaneswar railway station in the presence of Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha member Aparajita Sarangi and Rajya Sabha member Raghunath Mohapatra.
The facility will be available in 317 stations across the State, said a statement of East Coast Railway (ECoR).
“Railways has prepared all station names in Odia script which will now be implemented in 317 stations in Odisha for the stations under East Coast Railway, South Eastern Railway and South East Central Railway jurisdictions,” it said.
With technical support from CRIS, Kolkata; the Database of more than 8,000 station names in Odia script has been prepared by ECoR as a passenger-friendly initiative. Steps have been taken to print the station name in Odia script to match with the vernacular name of the Station as per the local language of that particular area of the country.
The train tickets having Odia script would be applicable for Unreserved Tickets bought manually from the railway counters in Odisha, it said.
“So, many people from Odisha who had problem with reading English and Hindi languages on train tickets and who did not know if they had the right tickets vis-a-vis their intended originating and destination stations as well as class of travel and train type are correct or not, can now read the same in Odia script,” it added.
Tickets will have the language of the State where it is issued. For example, if someone books a ticket from any station in Odisha for a train that originates from Bengaluru and travels through six States to reach Guwahati, the ticket will be in Odia apart from Hindi and English.
