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Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is to launch railway ticket booking from mobile telephones, IRCTC managing director Rakesh Saxena said.

This mobile ticketing facility has been launched as a pilot project in Delhi and it will be implemented all over the country before the end of this year.

Saxena was briefing reporters at the food plaza at Chennai Egmore Railway Station that was recently inaugurated by V Anand, general manager, Southern Railway.

The Egmore food plaza is being run on a public-private partnership by IRCTC, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Hot Chips and Anjappar Hotels.

Saxena said two more food plazas would be set up at Chennai Beach and Chennai Park. Already, there is a food plaza at Chennai Central.

Twelve more new food plazas would be started in the southern region, including at Madurai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Chennai Park, Chennai Beach, Ernakulam, Shoranur, Bangalore, Vijayawada and Rajahmundry.

IRCTC plans to set up 50 such plazas all over India. The plaza that was inaugurated at Egmore was the 20th in the country and second in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking about booking rail tickets using the Internet, Saxena said more than one lakh tickets have been delivered using Internet train ticket system in more than 110 cities in India.

More than 16 banks, including ICICI Bank, Citibank and State Bank of India, have tied up with IRCTC for Internet ticket booking.

IRCTC has started yet another facility for rail passengers. Passengers can order their food through telephone. The order will be picked up and IRCTC would deliver the food to the passengers on the train in which they are travelling.