Category Archives: IRCTC

Indian Railway News, IRCTC

UTS Mobile Ticketing Service by Indian Railways

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The Hon’ble Minister of Railways inaugurated the UTS Mobile Ticketing services ( Unreserved Suburban Tickets ) on December 27th, 2014. UTS or the unreserved ticketing services were a promise by the Indian Railways in making the suburban rail commuting more convenient and trouble-free for the common passenger. 21 million people around the big cities in this country travel on a daily basis into and out of the city. The majority of them use the suburban railway system. In Mumbai, it is called the lifeblood of the city. The system is now operational and now can be used in the Mumbai and Chennai suburban railway systems.

The Registration Process –

First and foremost, those passengers, who would like to use this facility, would have to have a Smartphone. Currently, the smartphones with the Android operating system and the Windows operating systems offer the service. The other two main operating systems the ios and the Blackberry do not support the system. The logic behind that is that people, who use such a system, are generally not the ones who travel by suburban railways.

First, one will have to download the UTS mobile application from the application marketplace of the above two operating systems. The application has been built in-house by the CRIS, which stands for Centre for Railway Information Systems.

The registration can be done in two ways. The passenger can either do it from the mobile application itself or by using the website utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in. In the registration process, the person will have to provide his or her mobile number, name, the city, the default booking train type, the class, the ticket type, the frequently travelled routes and the number of passengers.

The Railway Wallet –

The next thing that the passenger need to do is have a Railway wallet or as they are calling them R Wallet.

The railway wallet is the only method by which ticket can be purchased from the UTS mobile application. First and foremost, a passenger has to register himself or herself in the R wallet ecosystem. Then, they will have to link it to a mobile number. Initially, the railway wallet will show zero balance as one has not added any money to it.

The recharging process of the railway wallet is a very simple proposition. There are two ways of doing it. Either the passenger can approach the numerous UTS counters available in the suburban railway stations to recharge or he can visit the utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in portal to recharge using a credit card, debit card or online banking system.

When a person is making a ticket booking, the application will check if there is enough balance in the r wallet to make the purchase. If there is, then it will make the booking, otherwise, it will prompt to recharge the R wallet. If one cancels the ticket, the amount deducted for the purchase of the ticket will be refunded to the R wallet.

The Train Travel –

After buying the tickets, one will need to carry the mobile phone with him while making the journey. Then when in the source station, the place from where one will start their journey, a passenger will have to locate an ATVM machine. These machines have been set up at all the stations to get printouts of the tickets booked via the mobile application. With this printout in your hand, you are ready to start your journey. Unfortunately, after taking a printout, you cannot cancel your journey.

The Advantages –

There are a number of advantages in using this system. Firstly, it is a much quicker process to book tickets, especially for the routes that you travel frequently. Next is that, one can book tickets for any suburban rail station! The third is that one can cancel a ticket if there is a change of plan. The fourth option is that the application maintains a log of the booked tickets so that you can rebook them quickly if you wish to, and finally, the application tracks your r wallet and tells you if you need to recharge it.

Indian Railways is a large network that caters to the tens of millions of customers every day. With innovations like UTS mobile ticketing service, the bond between the brand Railways and the passengers become a little better.

Indian Railway News, IRCTC

IRCTC Helps Make Train Journey Easier and Hassle-Free

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IRCTC is an integral part of Indian Railways. It provides a complete service to international tourists and domestic travelers in India. It handles catering, hospitality, tourism and online train tickets services. Read on to get complete information about this division of Indian Railways.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) is a subsidiary division of Indian Railways. Set up by the Ministry of Railways, it handles entire catering and tourist activity and online ticketing options of the Indian railways. The company provides its services with the help of public-private participation. The aim of IRCT is to enhance customer services by facilitating railway catering, hospitality, travel and tourism services in a professionalized and innovative ways.

Objectives of the Company:
IRCTC looks forward to emerging as a customer-friendly organization through constant innovation, human resource development and advanced technology. It increases manpower productivities and optimizes resources with its quality product vending and innovative marketing strategies. The company strives to imbibe ethical and strong work culture by maintaining teamwork, building and repositioning Indian Railways in the comprehensive service sector.

Services – IRCTC provides a wide range of services;

1. Tourism –
We cannot deny the fact that there has been excellent growth of Railway Tourism in India. Since inception, IRCTC has made vibrant marketing strategy with state tourism and top tour operators in order to provide exclusive tour packages across the country. For improved tourism purposes in India, this company makes arrangement for train coaches, full train charters and reserved berth programs as well.

The company also provides budget and deluxe package tours for domestic and international tourists. It provides budget tourists with special package, which is called “Bharat Darshan”. This package covers all important tourist places in the country.

In addition, this railway division also provides luxury tour packages that include special luxury trains such as Royal Orient Express, Palace on Wheels, Deccan Odyssey and many others. Apart from all these, one can also book adventure tourism packages at IRCTC. The adventure tourism packages comprise of wildlife and adventure treks and water sports.

2. Online Indian Railway Ticketing –

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation provides internet-based rail ticket. Any person can book tickets for anywhere in India through its website or from the mobile app powered by IRCTC. The company also deals in offering I-tickets. This type of ticket is just like normal ticket. The only difference is that you can book it online and the tickets will be delivered to you by post.

With a view to make e-ticketing book facility easier, IRCTC has launched a scheme, which is called Rolling Deposit Scheme (RDS). This scheme enables passengers to reserve seats against advance money kept with the corporation.

3. Indian Railway Tatkal Ticket Scheme –

IRCTC provides Tatkal scheme to passengers. Under this scheme, one can plan his or her journey at short notice. The scheme allows passengers to book their tickets in every Express/ Mail trains through the Indian railways website. The booking for tatkal ticket begins at 10:00 am daily. However, one can book the tickets under this scheme one day before departure of the train from source station.

Those who travel on Tatkal tickets are required to carry a photo ID proof.  Carrying a photo ID proof is mandatory for the passengers who are traveling on Tatkal scheme.

Conclusion –

The bottom line is that IRCTC is playing a major role in making train journey hassle-free and cost-effective. Customer can dial its call center number 139 from anywhere in the country and get all information about any trains from Indian Railways.

Indian Railway News, IRCTC

Break Journey Rules of IRCTC – Know Them Before Booking Your Train Tickets

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Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is a Public Sector Enterprise. It functions under the Ministry of Railways.  The objective of IRCTC is to modify, amend, upgrade and manage the hospitality and catering services at railway stations, in every train and other locations. The company promotes domestic and international tourism by launching special tour packages, providing budget hotels to tourists, and giving them proper information about Indian railways.

You can use IRCTC portal to book train tickets online, know train running status, check your PNR status, and get the Indian railway timetable information and much more.

Apart from all these services, IRCTC provides you with facilities of traveling for a long distance by breaking your journey. Yes, IRCTC offers ‘break journey’ facility to train passenger.

Read this article and know ‘break journey rules’ of the IRCTC –

If you have a single ticket for a journey, and this journey will cover a distance of more than 500 kilometers, you will be allowed to break your journey once for two days at any station en-route. You can avail this facility only after traveling 500 kilometers from the starting station.

If you are going to travel for a distance of more than 1000 kilometers, you can enjoy parting your trip twice. Only you have to remember the departure and arrival date. Exclude these days while calculating the number of eligible days for first break of your journey. Ticket should be endorsed by the station manager/ticket collector at the station where this journey is intended.

IRCTC does not allow this facility to passengers who have booked their tickets in Shatbadi/ Rajdhani/Jan shatbadi express trains. However, for booking tickets in other express trains, you will need to inform the ticket booking office about your intention of traveling in intervals at the time of booking your ticket as you cannot avail this facility after getting the reservation.

Important Notice –
Blow is key information about the rules of break journey. Know them if you want to enjoy this facility:

• You cannot enjoy the break journey facility if you want to book a single ticket for 800 kilometers and want to have a pause in your trip for two days at 423 kilometers.

• You can be permitted once for maximum 2 days stoppage at 501 kilometers only if you have a ticket for 600 kilometers.

• If you have a single journey ticket for 1050 kilometers and you want to break your travel at 400 kilometers and 801 kilometers, you will be given only one break at 801 kilometers for maximum of 2 days.

• If you have a single ticket for the journey of 2000 kilometers and you want a break  at 800 kilometers, 905 kilometers and 1505 kilometers, then you can have only two break journey depending on your per choice at the rate of two days maximum at each point of break journey.

Recommendation –

This is advisable to please visit the official website of IRCTC to get complete information about the ‘break journey rules’ as Indian railways makes certain changes in its policies.

Indian Railway News, IRCTC

What Is IRCTC?

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The Ministry of Railways has set up the IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) for transferring all responsibility for tourism and catering to this new corporation. This has been done to ensure professionalism and upgradation of service through private-public collaborations.

Tourism via railways will be the source of high growth in this sector by coordinating with other agencies such as tour operators, hotels, travel agents etc. On the plate is a dynamic strategy of marketing in collaboration with private and public agencies such as hoteliers, tour operators, transporting agencies, travel agents and state agencies.

Indian Railways has humungous potential for ICRTC as it carries along 13 million passengers daily. The mission of IRCTC is to enhance services of customers in railway hospitality, catering, travel and tourism with best practices of the industry.

Objectives of IRCTC are:

  • To be totally friendly to customers and driven by innovation, technology changes and development of human resources.
  • Using innovative practices of marketing and vending of quality products to increase productivity of man power and optimize resources.
  • Upgradation and consolidation of services of catering in the organized sectors.
  • To maximize returns on investment by enhancing areas of core competencies and enhance opportunities of business via efficient partnership between public and private agencies.
  • Adopt ethical and strong work culture by team work, as well as reposition the Railways in the emerging economy.
  • Develop superior standards of work ethics, cost control and quality management.
  • Concern for heritage and environment.

Services by IRCTC –

  • Tourism:

Ever since the set up of the IRCTC, tourism in India has witnessed a boom. They have developed   dynamic strategy of marketing by collaborating with tour operators and state agencies. They provide exclusive tour packages all around the country. IRCTC provides arrangements for charter of full train coaches and cabins and programs for reserved births through trains for promoting tourism. Already, 50,000 passengers have benefited from the program.

  • Internet Reservations:

There has been a tremendous demand for ticket availability at the door step. IRCTC has already started these services in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. They are aiming to extend these services to Ahmadabad, Hyderabad and Pune in the near future. After this, the service will be expanded to other cities. The relevant website for internet booking is www.irctc.co.in.

  • Food Plazas:

The IRCTC has planned to set up hundreds of food plazas across the various stations in the country. These are multi cuisine kiosks catering to the vast numbers of passengers. The food plazas will have air conditioned ambience, contemporary décor, and 24x 7 operations for the convenience of passengers. They charge competitive, market driven pricing.

  • Call Centers:

The IRCTC has opened a call center. Any customer can dial from anywhere in the country to get information on Indian railways.

  • Other Services:

The IRCTC time table is a comprehensive Indian Railways time table, which provides all information about running trains. Using the website, one can access IRCTC login train timings, which provide information on IRCTC train schedule.

These are some of the services offered by the IRCTC.

Indian Railway Map, Indian Railway News, IRCTC

Indian Railway info

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Indian Railways (IR) is one of the largest rail networks in the world. It is a public enterprise whose owning and operations rest with Ministry of Railways, the Government of India. Every day it ferries over 23 million passengers across 7000 stations.

Proper information is vital to the coordination of such a large network. The organization of the railways is as follows: The railways are divided into 17 zones and 68 divisions. Every zone is helmed by a general manager and every station by the station master.

The IR covers a track of 115,000 km. Trains are classified as per their average speed. A fast train moves with fewer stops and is, usually, a long distance train.

The various trains in the Indian Railways are:

  • Duronto Express: Introduced in 2009, these are non-stop point to point services. They connect the major capitals of states and metros and beat the Rajdhani Express in speed. They include first tier AC (Air conditioned), 2-tier AC and 3-tier AC. Some include non-AC sleeper class.

  • Rajdhani Express: These are trains connecting Delhi to major cities and are fully air conditioned. They are high priority trains with some of the fastest speeds (130 km/ hour). They stop at few stations.

  • AC Express: Trains connecting major stations of the country. They have few stops and high speeds.

  • Shatabdi Express: They are fully air conditioned inter- city trains for daily commute. They have executive seats and ordinary seats. Some have 3 tier berths and the trains are some of the fastest in the IR network.

  • Garib Rath Trains: They are air conditioned, basic facility trains with 3 AC berths and economy seats.

  • Jan Shatabdi: More affordable versions of Jan Shatabdis having AC and non AC carriages.

  • Intercity Super Fats: As name suggests, they are high speed trains for which extra surcharge is levied with the fare.

  • Express: Most common trains in India having frequent stops.

  • Passenger: These stop at all stations and are the least expensive trains. They have sleeper class, as well as 3-tier AC.

  • Suburban Trains: These trains operate between major cities and have unreserved seating arrangement.

  • Metro: Meant only for city transport.

IR is the best way to experience India. Contrary to reputation, many trains afford comfortable travel via AC1, AC 2 tier and AC 3 tier. All seats on such trains have reservations system, so they are a comfortable, civilized and cheap way to roam India.

Such a huge and varied network requires prompt and accurate dissemination of information. Indian Railway information is available nowadays through many sources. The main source is the publication-‘Trains at a Glance’ by Indian Railways. Other than this, there are many online sources for Indian Railway Train Information.

The main site is the Indian railways website www.indianrail.gov.in. It provides the following information:

  • Train availability at main stations
  • Schedule of reserved trains
  • Enquiry stem of National trains
  • SMS service
  • Availability of current booking
  • Catering charges
  • Availability of train berth
  • Information on train type
  • Rules
  • Viewing of codes
  • Trains at a glance
  • Tatkal Scheme
  • Service for international tourists
  • Connect to other railway websites.

Some other Major Services Provided by this Site are:

  • PNR status
  • Fare enquiry
  • Internet reservation
  • Reserved train between important stations
  • Seat availability

There is also the National Train Enquiry System: www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in/ntes/.

It provides train information Indian Railway like:

  • Spot your train
  • Live station
  • Trains between stations
  • Schedule of trains
  • Cancelled trains
  • Rescheduled trains
  • Diverted trains.
  • PNR enquiry
  • Berth/seat availability
  • Berth/seat booking.

Other sites where Railway information India is available are:

  • www.indiarailinfo.com: With easy login, the site shows arrival/departure at your nearest stations, ascertains PNR status, gets information on train type and features an atlas with maps of the IR network.

  • www.seat61.com/India.htm: It provides maps of train routes, check train timing and fares, booking of tickets, online purchase of tickets, buying and utilizing Ind-Rail pass, tour packages including train journey, booking of tourist trains like Palace on Wheels, guidebooks, and hotel information.

  • IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation): Key in PNR number, train name and number and get feedback on PNR status, locate train, find live running status, arrival/departure etc. It also has services like information on tour packages, special trains, holiday trains, tourist trains, booking for retiring room, etc.

  • www.makemytrip.com/railways/indian-railways.html: Enter whether one way or two way trip, dates and place (from/to).

  • www.rail.yuplee.in: It features train timetable, train enquiry (Search by train/station), PNR status, train schedule, train list.

  • www.runningstatus.in: Feed in the train number and get live running status.

  • CRIS: CRIS is an independent organization under the Ministry of Railways. They are the Information Technology arm of the IR. Their website www.cris.org.in/CRIS/Home/Home features latest information on IR network.

  • TravelKhana.com: A portal mainly devoted to the delivery of food to train passengers, it has now diversified into umbrella service of ticket booking, PNR status checking, live tracking of train position, etc. Search your train by providing number or name. Choose a station from the drop down list, click on departure or arrival, and get the feedback of accurate position of the train on the map. One can do auto tracking of movement of the train. The status of train is updated every five minutes, so you must key in details each time, freshly. You can utilize this information whether you are on the train for waiting at the platform to receive someone.

These are just a sample of the services for getting access to information on IR network and its related aspects.