Cashless Ticket Booking In Railways

Following schemes have been introduced for promotion of cashless transaction on Indian Railways:-

i. The facility of online booking of reserved tickets has been provided through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. The payment for tickets booked through IRCTC website is made through various cashless modes such as net banking, through credit/debit cards, cash cards and e-wallets. To incentivise payment through digital means, service charge on online booking of tickets was withdrawn for the tickets booked from 23.11.2016. The facility has been extended upto 31.03.2018.

ii. Indian Railways have tied up with State Bank of India to install 10,000 Point of Sale (POS) machines at various locations of Indian Railways i.e. Passenger Reservation System (PRS)/ Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) ticket booking counters and Parcel/Goods locations.

iii. Booking of tickets through mobile phone has also been introduced wherein payment can be made through credit/debit cards, net banking, e-wallets etc.

iv. Service charge applicable on transactions against credit/debit cards for purchasing journey tickets at UTS/PRS counters has been withdrawn.

v. International credit/debit cards issued outside India are accepted for booking of e-tickets through IRCTC website.

vi. Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) have been introduced to facilitate sale of unreserved tickets which have provision of payment through smart cards.

vii. 0.5% discount is given on purchase of season tickets through digital means with effect from 01.01.2017 upto 31.03.2018.

viii. An optional travel insurance scheme with coverage of `10 lakh each had been launched at premium of `0.92 per passenger for those passengers who purchase their online e-ticket (RAC/confirmed ticket holder) from IRCTC website. Subsequently, this insurance scheme is being offered free of cost from 10.12.2016 and has been presently extended up to 31.08.2018 for those passengers who purchase their online e-ticket (RAC/confirmed ticket holder) from IRCTC website.

ix. 5% discount is given for digital payment of catering services on Indian Railways. This scheme has been extended up to 31.03.2018.

x. Provisions have been made in new Catering Policy 2017 for installation of facility of cashless transaction viz. POS/Swipe machine etc. in all the mobile and static units.

xi. 5% discount is given on online payment made for availing services like online booking of retiring rooms with effect from 01.01.2017.

xii. It has been decided to provide 5% discount on the total value of basic fare in PRS reserved counter ticket subject to maximum amount of discount on a ticket of `50 for payments made through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) including Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) subject to value of ticket being `100 and more.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.