Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's dream to come true? Check out what is at stake at Indian Railways

Union Minister Piyush Goyal has proposed to open extended banking counters across all 2.9 lakh common service centres (CSCs) that are operated by village level entrepreneurs to provide government services in rural areas. All 2.9 lakh common service centres (CSC) will be able to book both reserved and unreserved Indian Railways train tickets, under the agreement signed between IRCTC and CSC e-Governance.

"My dream will come true if you accept the challenge to open extension counters of banks in 2.9 lakh places. If required we can collaborate with renewable and power ministry to set-up small solar units at your places so that electricity becomes free," Goyal said after IRCTC and CSC e-Governance signed an agreement for train ticket bookings. 

"Along with these, we can connect with core banking. If an extension counter of a bank is opened, then every villager will have a bank near his/her home," Goyal added. 

On this occasion, the Department of Telecom (DoT), launched 5,000 wifi choupals in partnership with CSC which will provide 60,000 wifi hotspots in rural areas. Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that all the ministries and government departments are exploring opportunities to utilise the reach of CSCs in rural areas.

According to Sundararajan, DoT is looking to maintain BharatNet network. She also said that the higher education department is looking to deliver its education content in gram panchayats through CSCs.

"With this development, all 2.9 lakh CSCs will be connected with technology for railway ticket booking. Around 40,000 CSCs are providing this service, and IRCTC should accelerate and make sure that in the next 8-9 month every CSCs should have this facility," Goyal said.

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There will be no limit on number of Indian Railways tickets that can be booked from a CSC, said CSC e-Governance CEO Dinesh Tyagi. He also said that the money will be deducted from the account of VLE (the person running CSC). He will get a commission of Rs 10 per ticket. Booking of the unreserved ticket will start in about a month.

The Railway Minister said that he has accepted the proposal of CSC e-Governance to allow all CSCs to operate as banking correspondents and also proposed to disburse 'Mudra Loan' through CSCs. He also said that all the 2.9 lakh CSC will be made banking correspondents. Goyal proposed the opening of CSC at 8,000 railway stations where they can provide all their services besides tele-medicine and education.