Mangaluru : Southern Railway has installed one Cash-Coin & Smart Card operated (Versatile) Ticket Vending Machine (CoTVM) at Mangaluru Central Railway Station to dispense unreserved tickets and the machine has been functioning since a couple of days.

The move is aimed at speeding up issuing of unreserved tickets at the station.

The CoTVM is capable of issuing tickets accepting Indian coins, Indian currency notes and smart cards.

This machine is in addition to the already functioning two smart card-based automatic ticket vending machines on the station premises. Following demand for unreserved tickets, the Indian Railways has been contemplating introduction of ATVMs.

The machines would thus help passengers to buy tickets without much hassle. The only thing is that they should keep either exact amount for the ticket with them or possess a smart card to buy tickets, an official from Southern Railway said.

The machines also dispense platform tickets and season tickets.

Smart cards with face value of Rs. 100, of which Rs. 50 is the refundable security deposit and the balance for travel usage, would be available at designated counters of the station.

One can also top up this card up to a value of Rs. 5,000; but one has to use up the balance within six months from the date of the last top-up. The user would get 5 per cent additional usage value during the top-up, if one recharges Rs. 5,000, one would get Rs. 5,250 usage value to buy tickets.

One can get refund of the security deposit as well as the balance amount on surrendering the smart card. A clerkage charge of Rs. 10 would be deducted in such cases, the official said.

Since it is only about two days that the machine has started functioning, not many passengers are aware of the facility. The two machines which were commissioned earlier have been working with the help of an attendant who facilitates purchase of tickets through a smart card.