Mumbai suburban train delayed? Now, check its status on your mobile phone

Fed up waiting for delayed trains on the Western Railway (WR)? You can now check the expected arrival time of suburban trains on a mobile application.

The WR has upgraded its DISHA app, and added a feature which lets passengers check the expected time of arrival (ETA) of suburban trains, apart from the catering menu with approved rate list, and live updates and notifications about train services, maintenance blocks, cancellation of trains and other civic issues.

Launched as Digital India initiative in February 2016, DISHA serves as a single window for information pertaining to passenger amenities available at railway station such as Wi-Fi availability, Emergency Medical Rooms (EMRs), station master’s office, GRP and RPF post, and catering facilities, among others.

Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, WR, said that after the introduction of the suburban time table on the DISHA App, a lot of feedback was received regarding adding a feature to live-track local trains, which is presently only available for long distance trains through the National Train Enquiry System NTES mobile app.

“DISHA has been upgraded with three important additional features, which will be very useful for train commuters,” said Bhakar. The app is compatible with both Android as well as iOS platforms.

He added that the app has been integrated with the train management system, used for managing train operations, as a result of which the user can see the ETA of local train at a particular station.

The app will show commuters the schedule for the expected trains in time slots of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and one hour.” This means that if a commuter wants to travel in the next 30 minutes and checks the application, the trains scheduled and expected delay at station in the next 30 minutes will be shown on the application,” said Bhakar.

He also cleared that the introduction of catering menu with the approved rates of food items being sold from catering stalls of the station will be helpful to avoid overcharging by catering vendors.