Aiming to facilitate smooth ticketing service for defence personnel posted in remote places, Army on Wednesday launched a web portal for booking their travel tickets online and through telephone.

Launching the service, Army Chief General V K Singh said the web portal will make the task of booking e-tickets better for soldiers posted in far away places.

"It will help our people who cannot access Internet or are at places where it is difficult because of other reasons.

They will be able to get their tickets booked, which will be a great help in ensuring that they travel as per rules and within stipulations but with an easier way," Gen Singh said.

He hoped the portal will be further improved with the experience shared by its users.

The portal has been launched by Balmer and Lawrie (a government of India enterprise)- authorised travel agent for the defence personnel.

It provides various facilities such as a round-the-clock call centre and a toll free number for inquiries. It also facilitates booking for personnel availing LTC to any part of the country.

The call centre would be upgraded to Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) facility from February which will enable defence commuters to book tickets even on phone, CMD of Balmer and Lawrie Viren Sinha said.

The website, which presently caters to Air India, will be upgraded to cater to all airlines in next two months, he added.