During the period from April, 2016 to December, 2016, approximately 59% of total reserved tickets were booked through cashless mode i.e. through internet or through credit/debit cards across counters. Also, cashless transactions in case of freight business is more than 99%.
With a view to further promoting cashless transaction, it has been decided to install 10,000 Point of Sale (POS) machines in association with State Bank of India at various locations of Indian Railways in the following order of priority :-
1. PRS locations
2. UTS locations at suburban stations
3. Parcel/Goods locations where cash is accepted
4. Other UTS locations
As the POS machines are GPRS-based, the communication system of Railways is not required for operation of these machines.