Gearing up to tackle passenger rush as well as tout menace during the upcoming festive season, Northern Railway has drawn out an action plan to ensure smooth functioning of ticket counters. According to an official press release, Closed Circuit TVs are being being installed at various reservation centres to keep a watch on the activities of touts at ticket counters.

Railways have conducted 49,737 checks across the country and apprehended over 2013 touts during April-December 2011 while Northern Railway has undertaken 5513 checks and apprehended 225 touts during this period. Besides monitoring the reservation offices, squads of ticket checking staff have been formed to organise surprise check to curb the tout activities.

In order to cope with the demand for tickets, Railways has decided to increase the advance reservation period from 90 days to 120 days from March 10. Railways have recently revised the Tatkal scheme by reducing the advance reservation period from 48 hours to 24 hours.