V K Agarwal, Chairman, Railway Board, formally launched this country's first touch-screen based enquiry facility at Vadodara railway station at a simple function on Sunday afternoon.

The station's entrance was decorated for the occasion. Agarwal reached the spot on the dot at 4.30 pm, and was given hands-on information about the 17-inch, P-III, 450-MHz, 64 MB RAM, CD-ROM computerised facility. It is through this facility that a passenger will henceforth be able to get menu-driven information by touching the desired buttons/scrolling arrow and see the information on the display.

Agarwal later formally launched the PNR inquiry display system through which a passenger has to type the PNR number by using the keypad to know the status of his reservation ticket.

Later in the evening, divisional railway manager K C Jena and senior divisional commercial manger Manmohan Singh said that the stored details in the information kiosk would be updated from time to time. According to them, another screen would be operational in another corner at the station in a fortnight. The facility is now available from 6 am till around midnight.

In idle mode when no passenger interacts with the multimedia information kiosk (MIK), it displays railway videos. To prevent a single passsenger using the system for more than three minutes, the system is designed to automatically return to main menu. Besides trains time table, fare and connecting trains, the MIK has details about Vadodara division, its history and a zoom-ble city map, officials said.

Agawal is in the city to attend an international seminar on railways at the Railway Staff College, in which several dignitaries from foreign railways are also participating.