The Pune railway division has come up with a radical solution to the tout menace at the reservation centre at Pune station. In order to book tickets at the reservation centre there, commuters will now have to provide biometric identification, to help the division keep track of passengers and the number of tickets they are reserving.

Handy technology:  To enter the reservation counter at Pune station, commuters have to collect a coupon from the palm scanners placed outside. Every person has a unique pattern of veins on their palms, which the machines scan. Pic/Shashank Sane

Yesterday, commuters who went to the reservation centre were asked to first collect coupons from two automatic palm scanners placed outside. The coupons had information such as the service number and which counter number they were supposed to head to. Once inside, they were pleasantly surprised to see that not only were the queues much shorter than they used to be earlier, but new seating arrangements had also been provided for their convenience. With the new coupon numbers, there was no longer any need to jostle for a spot in the queue, and commuters could sit comfortably while waiting their turn.