In a welcome move, the Indian Railways has announced that passengers will not have to pay any service charge on payment through debit/credit cards while buying tickets at the railway platform from June 1.

Up till now, customers had to pay Rs 30 service charge on all tickets bought at the counter.

However, the service charge for booking tickets online will stay.

"There are some counters which are dimly lit and in shady areas. There is always the fear of getting attacked when we carry so much cash. This is a welcome change as we can make the booking with the cards," said S Venkatesan, a 72-year-old resident of Mylapore to ToI.

“We will see a number of new initiatives that are set to overhaul the ailing Indian Railways. In the past 30 to 40 years, the Railways did not attract the investment as it should have considering the rise in the country’s population,” said Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.