Now, book rail tickets in post offices
Rail travellers may soon be able to book tickets online in post offices, with Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation initiating talks with Department of Posts for using its network to issue e-tickets.
“We are in talks with Department of Posts to use their 1.5 lakh post offices for issuing e-tickets. We have also written to all district magistrates to work out a model, which will enable people in distant villages with computers and internet access to get e-tickets,” IRCTC Managing Director P K Goel said.
IRCTC is taking steps to increase points of ticket sales and facilitate online bookings through internet cafes, ATM networks of banks and post-offices among others.
It has also signed an MoU with State Bank of India under which the bank would set up internet facilities at its ATMs and branches where its customers can get printouts of train tickets while they pay with their SBI cards.
“We have received a similar proposal from UTI Bank”, Goel said.
IRCTC has recently tied up with Sify Ltd to enable passengers to book train tickets online at Sify’s network of over 3,400 Internet cafes – iway centres – using cash payment.
The new measures are aimed at substantially increasing the number of tickets issued online. At present, of the eight lakh train tickets issued on average every day, only about 25,000 tickets are issued online.
Earlier, e-bookings on the IRCTC website was available to customers who either had a credit card or a net banking facility, limiting the number of people who could use this facility.
Initially, the project would be started on a pilot basis in 10 cities and then expanded to 500 cities. The service will be available in 3,400 cities within six months, Goel added. “Our target is to reach people without credit cards or net banking, especially in Tier-II and III cities to use the railways’ e-ticketing facility,” he said.
Such cities provide the majority of customers for IRCTC’s current e-ticketing system, he added.
With this agreement, IRCTC is expecting to sell more than one lakh tickets online daily as against the 25,000 it sells every day at present.
Sify CEO and Managing Director Raju Vegesna said the agreement would provide the convenience of online booking and safety of offline transaction to customers.
