Commuters hailed the launch of the Indian Railways mobile application (app) for paperless unreserved tickets for Egmore and Tambram suburban sections of Chennai on Wednesday.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu introduced the mobile app on a pilot basis in the Southern Railways zone.

Developed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) "utsonmobile" – the paperless unreserved ticketing feature in mobile application aims to eliminate the need for printing of unreserved tickets. Payment for the ticket is done through a feature in the app called 'railway wallet'.

"It is a big opportunity for Southern Railway. The railway board has inaugurated mobile ticketing. For those who do not get confirmed tickets, they can book their tickets through their mobile phones. At the moment they can travel from Egmore to Tambram," said CPI (M) member TK Rengarajan.

"It will be extended further. This is a great help to the ordinary passenger and office goers. We must congratulate the railway", he added.

Ashok Agarwal, the General Manager of Southern Railways expressed his delight on the occasion and assured on improving the app experience for passengers.

"It will be extended to all parts of India slowly. Probably people will face difficulties in the beginning, but we will keep making sure that we work on improving it for the people whether it is improving the mobile application or any other services. And when this is improved properly, it will be extended to other areas," Agarwal said.

"In the earlier system you had to take a print out of the ticket once it was booked, which meant paper and time wastage. In the new system, a print out is not required which will save paper and time," he added.

The app, which is for both Android and Windows platforms, can be downloaded from Google Play Store or Windows Store.