Internet Ticketing Internet Ticketing
IRCTC pioneered internet-based rail ticket booking through its website accounted for 79.63% of the total reserved tickets booked online on Indian Railways in 2020-21. On an average, 4.80 lakh tickets were sold daily through IRCTC's website and Mobile App during 2020-21. The site offers round the clock ticket booking services, except for a 35 minute break from 2345 hrs to 0020 hrs
Ticket booking during the year was low due to the lock down condition imposed in the country on public movement. Further, bookings were totally stopped w.e.f. 15.04.2020 to 11.05.2020 due to unforeseen adverse circumstances in the wake of COVID-19 Global Pandemic. Passenger Train operations were completely stopped by Indian Railways from 22.03.2020 to 12.05.2020 and only skeleton service through Special Trains were operated post 12.05.2020 with some increase during festival period when few special trains were inducted
E-Ticketing Statistics
No. of E-Tickets and Passengers Booked
A total of 1740.46 lakhs tickets have been booked in 2020-21 as compared to 3019.04 lakhs in 2019-20. Total 3052.67 lakh passengers got booked on E-Tickets in 2020-21 as compared to 5229.62 lakh passengers booked in 2019-20. The ratio of Passenger to Ticket during the year was 1.75:1. Number of tickets booked during the year has reduced drastically due to the countrywide lockdown conditions imposed during COVID-19 Pandemic. Train running were being restored to normalcy, but unfortunately the country has started facing the wrath of 2nd wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
E-ticketing Revenue Collection
During the year 2020-21, a total amount of Rs.17761.60 crores was collected as Ticket Fare from the users as E-ticketing revenue, which is about 52% of the last year's collection of Rs. 34054.74 crores
MOU Targets 2020-21 and Achievements thereof:
| S. No. | Target | Status Of Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hotel Booking on IRCTC Tourism Portal with integration of Hotel chains, Inventory providers and state government guest houses (10 Nos.) | Integrated 12 Inventory Providers with more than 100 Hotels. |
| 2. | Loyalty Scheme for Tejas Trains by 31,.12.2020 | Achieved on 10-Oct-2020. |
| 3. | Booking for Agents on Mobile by IRCTC by 31.01.2021 | Achieved on 13-Jan-2021. |
| 4. | Bus Booking on IRCTC Tourism Portal by 31.01.2021 | Achieved on 29-Jan-2021. |
New Initiatives Taken During 2020-21
- Disbursement of refunds to the tune of more than Rs.2300 Crores to the customers due to large scale cancellation of Trains by Indian Railways in 3 - 4 trenches in wake of Covid-19 pandemic had been a great challenge for the organization. This amount had to be timely processed on account of cancellation of Passenger Trains by the Indian Railways w.e.f 21.03.2020 to 14.08.2020. The problem was compounded due to Work From Home introduced for staff due to complete lockdown in the country from 22.03.2020 onwards and had thrown a major challenge to the Company to process the refund of cancelled trains in time which involved coordination with Indian Railways, Banks, Payment Aggregators and Principal Service Providers (PSPs) of various Retail Service Providers/RSPs (Agents) of B2B /Internet Cafe Schemes and through B2C scheme. Due to changes made in the refund rules by the Ministry of Railways to grant full refund for cancelled trains even for already cancelled tickets, several technical changes had been made in the system in WFH (Work From Home) mode of functioning for this purpose. In some cases, special refund was also involved as flushed out PNRs could not be processed by PRS for refund.
- Information related to COVID 19 norms, COVID Appropriate Behaviour and State Advisories about various updates on the cancellation of trains and refund processes was disseminated to the customers through Alerts, Pop ups on IRCTC Website and Mobile Apps and through SMS
- AR (Assam Rifles) of Central Paramilitary Forces e-ticketing system was commissioned for booking Reserved Rail e-tickets for AR personnel (w.e.f. 06-Oct-2020). In the past e-ticketing system has been developed for CRPF, NDRF & NSG also bringing a major relief to these Central Paramilitary Forces in handling their reserved train ticket requirements and associated digital accountal.
- Launch of IRCTC - SBI Cobranded Credit Card on Rupay Platform -28-Jul-2020 :
- 1. In pursuance of Honble Prime Ministers vision of 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat', 'Digital India' and towards fulfilment of mission of Honble Minister of Railways in achieving greater self reliance, IRCTC and SBI have together launched a new Co-branded Contactless Credit Card on RuPay Platform of NPCI
- 2. The card was dedicated to the service of nation by Honble Minister of Railways and Minister for Commerce and Industry Sh. Piyush Goyal on 28th July, 2020
- 3. The Card is designed to reward Frequent Railway Travellers, wherein the new Co-branded Credit Card offers the rail passengers maximum savings proposition on their travel together with exclusive benefits on retail, dining and entertainment as well as transaction fee waivers. There is no online transaction charge for booking e-tickets through these cards on IRCTC website and Mobile Apps
- 4. The IRCTC SBI Credit Card on RuPay platform is fully indigenous, developed by IRCTC & SBI Card on RuPay platform of NPCI
- 5. Equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology whereby the users can expedite their transactions at the POS machines by just tapping the card on the machines without requiring to swipe the card
- Launch of IRCTC New User Interface - 31-Dec-2020 :
- 1. IRCTC has been constantly putting in its efforts to enhance the customer experience and convenience while booking reserved rail e-tickets through its Website and Rail Connect Mobile Apps
- 2. A much-needed push has come in the form of IRCTC's New e-Ticketing Interface - A Digital India initiative, which promises to transform the service delivery experience offered to travellers
- 3. IRCTC being a first contact point for travelling citizens with the Railways, need for New UI was felt to further enhance user personalization and facilitation of the IRCTC Website and Mobile App with more user friendly features and more comfortable navigation. This work has been carried out despite COVID 19 pandemic restriction in proper working of Office. The look and feel of the interface has been changed with simplified and appealing design
- Salient features of New UI are:
- 1. Customized Prompts for individual's (on login) Dashboard for Last Transaction, Upcoming Journeys, booking Meals, Hotel and Retiring Room
- 2. One click Rebook Favourite Journeys and Refund Status Check
- 3. Intelligent Journey and Stations Suggestions from Recent Searches / bookings: Display of Most booked stations and Routes by the individual (on login) or generally, first in the dropdown list of "From Stations
- 4. Provision to search Trains with Available Berths only
- 5. Provision for Storing Passenger names and prompting them while booking tickets.
- 6. Convenience for booking Meals, Hotel and Retiring Room while booking tickets and for upcoming journeys on already booked tickets
- 7. One stop Train Selection features on Same Page like Class Wise Fare, Seat Availability, Confirmation Probability (in case of WL) and various filters for all classes available on trains to reduce number of clicks and searches
- 8. More enhanced design of payment page, Summary Page with more Journey, passenger, fare and Meal Opted details in the side block
- 9. New Location for "Boarding Point Change" with more details like Boarding Date and Time
- 1. Total number of tickets booked were 1,740.46 Lakhs, 57.65% of the last year despite COVID 19 restriction on public movement.
- 2. Total Train Ticket Fare for online e-ticketing during the year was Rs.17,761.60 crores
- 3. 5.91 Crore Mobile App (on Android & iOS) Downloads till 31st March, 2020
- 4. Mobile Bookings: The average Mobile App bookings during 2020-21 were2.21 Lakh tickets per day, as compared to 3.86 Lakh tickets in 2019-20. 46% of IRCTC e-Tickets have been booked through IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App during FY 2020-21.
- 5. About 79.63% of Reserved Rail tickets were booked online in 2020-21, as compared to 72.75% in 2019-20. There has been continuous increase in online booking share over the years
- 6. Timely processing of refunds to the customers to the tune of Rs. 2200 Crores due to cancellation of trains by Indian Railways in the wake of COVID 19 Pandemic.
- 7. Launch of IRCTC - SBI Co-branded Credit Card on RuPay Platform on 28-Jul-2020
- 8. New User Interface with enhance features was launched on 31-Dec-12.2020.
- 9. OTP based login authentication for Retail Service Providers under B2B & Internet Cafe Schemes was launched on 13-Jan-2021.
- 10. Booking of e-tickets by Agents on Mobile Phones was launched on 13-Jan-2021
- 11. Hotels, Retiring Rooms, Bus booking, Meals booking - all are available on single platform of IRCTC along with train and Air ticketing
IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App New User Interface
