Mobile ticketing most cost-effective plan for railways

Although railway minister Suresh Prabhu has proposed debit card based ticketing machines, the banking industry has pushed for mobile-based ticketing as the best way forward for reducing queues and cost savings for Indian Railways. According to bankers use of mobiles would be most cost-effective as card-based payments are not viable for low-value tickets such as platform tickets and short distance suburban tickets. Even if on-site ATMs were used for issuing paper tickets it would be feasible for only higher value tickets as the interchange charges that banks pay to one another are quite high.