IRCTC stands for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation and is a subsidiary of the Railways of India and handles catering, online ticketing operations and the railways’ tourism. A new policy of the railways was developed in the year 2010 which was introduced by the erstwhile Railway Minister of India, Mamata Banerjee. According to this policy, catering services provided by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation were passed on to the hands of the Indian Railways.
On several trains, IRCTC is in charge of the catering service. Some of these trains are All Duranto Express, Maitree Express and Frakkha Express. In some trains, such as Kandhari Express and some Rajdhani Express trains, catering is operated by the zonal railway station.
Non-Railway Catering, known as NRC, was recently started by IRCTC as a new project. Under this project, certain cafeterias were set up in specific Ministries and Institutes of the country.
Online ticketing changed the whole impression of passengers about the railway ticketing department in the country. It started booking railway tickets online through websites and mobile phones using GPRS or SMS services. Also, the implementation of options to modify or cancel tickets online made the whole user experience of the ticketing system much easy and more convenient.
The tickets booked online are called E-tickets, and apart from that, there is also something called the I ticket which is booked online and delivered using post.
It is also possible to book seasonal tickets in certain parts of the country, such as Mumbai, where commuters are offered the option through the IRCTC website. A program launched by the IRCTC recently is known as the ‘Shubh Yatra’ program, according to which discounts are available to passengers who travel by train throughout the year.
This can be availed by paying the whole sum of money at once. These are really helpful for people who frequently travel by train. IRCTC has a whole range of online reservation services, which include flight and hotel booking services as well.
IRCTC also started a scheme recently in a bid to make booking e-tickets easier and hassle-free. This is called the Rolling Deposit Scheme or RDS. According to this, one can reserve seats by paying money in advance to the corporation. IRCTC received the highest number of ticket bookings on the 1st of March in 2013.
The number reached 5.02 lakh e-tickets. Although the organisation has a high infrastructure, it occasionally suffers from breakdowns during peak hours, especially the time between 0800 hrs and 1000 hrs. Although measures are taken by the IRCTC, customers have complained about the lag during peak hours.
