Tag Archives: Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation

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

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.

What Is IRCTC?

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.