Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

**Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation**
**भारतीय रेल खानपान एवं पर्यटन निगम**

Type	Subsidiary of the Indian Railways
Industry	Railways
Headquarters	New Delhi, NCT, India
Area served	India
Services	Catering, Tourism and Online Ticketing
Parent	Indian Railways
Website	https://irctc.co.in/

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (भारतीय रेल खानपान एवं पर्यटन निगम), is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the railways.

Services

Online ticketing

It is known for changing the face of railway ticketing in India. It pioneered internet-based rail ticket booking through its website, as well as from the mobile phones via GPRS or SMS. In addition to e-tickets, Indian Railways and Catering Tourism Corporation also offers I-tickets that are basically like regular tickets except that they are booked online and delivered by post. The tickets PNR status is also made available. Commuters on the Mumbai Suburban Railway can also book season tickets through the website. It has also launched a loyalty program called Shubh Yatra for frequent travellers. Through this program, passengers can avail of discounts on all tickets booked round the year by paying an upfront annual fee.

Seeking to make it easier to book e-tickets, It launched a scheme called Rolling Deposit Scheme (RDS). RDS is a hassle-free e-ticket booking scheme allowing passengers to reserve seats against advance money kept with the corporation.^[1] It has also added flights and hotels booking facilities to their line of online reservation services.^[2]

Tourism

Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation also organizes budget and deluxe package tours for domestic and foreign tourists. A popular tourism package for budget tourists covering important tourist destinations across India is "Bharat Darshan". Luxury tourism packages are also available, that involve special luxury trains such as Palace on Wheels, Royal Orient Express, Golden Chariot, Deccan Odyssey, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Buddhist Circuit Train and it is a partner in the Maharajas' Express operation.^[3]

Apart from conventional tourism, it also offers adventure tourism packages that include water sports, adventure and wildlife treks, etc. A provision for customizing tours as per specific requirements is also an added attraction. Recently a new venture of Indian Railways, named as RailTourismIndia has launched to provide direct catering and tourism packages to users.

Tatkal Booking

Under the Tatkal scheme, passengers who plan their journey at short notice can book their tickets in almost all Mail/Express trains through the Indian railways internet portal. The booking starts at 10:00 am daily, one day prior to the departure of the train from source station.^[4] Tatkal Reservation is criticized by numerous media releases, due to its inefficiency and slow server speed. Many IT expert suggests that simple steps are not being taken by the Indian Railways management which can easily resolve these issues and some time these are being linked to corruption in the entire ticketing system. Since the new revision, all Tatkal bookings can be done for trains departing within 48 hours. Passengers travelling on Tatkal tickets should carry a photo ID proof along with them to be shown to the ticket checker. Earlier this year, the website has launched Lite version which doesn't include ads, pop ups, etc.,

Records

As a biggest e-commerce portal in India, it made lot of records.

On 2 September 2013, nearly 572,000 tickets booked in a day.

On 19 March 2014, nearly 580,000 tickets booked in a day.^[5]

On 1 April 2015, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) created a new national record with 1345,000 tickets booked in a day.^[6]

On 2 April 2015, nearly 1100,000 tickets booked in a day.^[7]

Awards and achievements

Within a short span of its going online, it had become the largest and the fastest-growing e-commerce website in the Asia-Pacific region, with about six lakh registered users as of 2013.

Some of the other awards won by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation are:

Awarded the National Tourism Award of Excellence by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India.

Awarded the National Award for E-Governance, 2007–08 jointly by Department of IT, Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana.

Awarded the Genius of the Web Award 2007 for being the "Best E-Governance PSU Site" by CNBC.

Tourism Unit of West Zone declared winner for the category Best Value Leisure Product in Travel and Tourism Fair of India (TTF & OTM 2008) held in Mumbai from 9 to 11 February 2008.

Won National award for E-Governance for being "Best Citizen Centric Application" for the year 2007–08.

Tourism Unit declared winner for the category Most Innovative Product in Travel and Tourism Fair of India (TTF & OTM 2007) held in Mumbai from 10 to 12 February 2007.

Won CSI-Nihilent E-Governance award for "Best E-Governance Project" in 2007.

Won the ICICI Bank Retail Excellence Award in 2005.

Won Path Breaker Award from Dataquest in 2003 and 2004.

Awarded the Mini Ratna Category-1 by Ministry of Railways, Govt. of India

In March 2014, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation against the website's regarding alleged unfair practices related to compulsory sale of food to travellers on some trains and ticket booking.