By early next year, railway commuters would not have to worry about finding the ‘east’ or the ‘west’ of the station or getting themselves directed to any of the facilities present. With a mobile application named ‘Disha’ being developed, commuters on the Western Railway will be well informed about the passenger amenities at the station, prominent places around and general information about the station.
Earlier, commuters often seemed puzzled about deciphering the foot overbridge to be used, platform numbers and other details inside station. Through this app, officials say, they want to help commuters, especially new local travellers, be self-informed about the facilities.
“Over the last couple of years, a lot of passenger amenities have been introduced around many stations, which include escalators, new foot overbridges, booking offices. More recently, the was made Wi-fi enabled. As opposed to regular commuters of the station, new ones would not have an idea about what facilities are present at the station. Through Disha, we would like to help such commuters have a complete idea about it,” said a senior WR official.
Developed by True Pay, the app available on Android and iOS platforms is expected to be introduced by January to all the stations on WR. As opposed to requiring internet connectivity for the same, the application can be used offline, and it will also track the movement of a commuter through GPS technology.
“Any user of the application will solely have to click on any of the facility of the station and he or she will be directed on how to go about with the same. The app will also enlist the distance involved in reaching the spot, inform the commuter about the nearest railway station to alight at for his commute and also help with the knowledge of an ATM inside the station. Commuters can also be informed about the general information about the station — like number of tickets sold and others,” the official added.
Commuters feel this will make their suburban commute easy. “This application will be very helpful to me. My job involves regular travel at different places and I always end up asking others about which FOB to use or which side to get down from. The application will reduce my search time and make commute easy,” said Girish Kelkar, a regular commuter.
Officials are also planning to feed more information about the platform on which the train will halt and the route to take for their destination. “In the first phase, 45 stations on the Mumbai suburban division will get the facility. Once the app is functional, we will keep updating it as per the requirement,” said an official.
