With the unreserved ticketing system (UTS) for suburban services now fully computerised, the Central and Western railways are both dealing with a colossal task, disposing of the old, iconic tickets, made of yellow cardboard. Worth several crores, they are being either burned or shredded.

WR has disposed of a mindboggling 7.86 crore tickets, whose printed price exceeds Rs 28 crore, and CR tens of thousands of tickets, their printed price over Rs 50 lakh.

“The disposal is done at our Mahalaxmi Stores depot where the staff from the commercial and the accounts department check the tickets and then shred them before disposing of them completely,” said WR chief spokesperson S S Gupta. “We have completed 80 per cent of the work and should soon dispose of the remaining tickets.”

Sources said the WR staff recently disposed of some over 2 crore tickets at Andheri station alone. “It is an important station on the suburban system both WR and harbour line trains stop there. Plus, it is also important from a business point of view, so it is natural that it stocked a large number of tickets,” said a rail official.

Shriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson for CR, said it has so far disposed of tickets worth Rs 52.57 lakh from 30 stations on the suburban section. It plans to dispose of tickets worth 58.14 lakh.

The UTS started firming up on the suburban section last year. In its initial stages, the railway authorities had retained the old tickets but now, since the computerized system has clicked, they have decided to shift to it completely.

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