Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal launched the revamped version of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) e-ticketing website on Thursday.
The new website claims to have full user customization tied to user login, such as meal reservation, room checkout, and hotels have also been integrated and can be booked directly along with tickets.
The Ministry of Railways defined it as the “New Year’s gift for the passengers” of the railways.
“The Railways is committed to serving the nation and constantly working to increase its services and further enhance the experience of traveling by train. This enhanced e-ticketing platform for online train ticketing will enhance passenger convenience … IRCTC must continue to work to constantly improve the website to ensure that it is second to none in the world based on mission and Vision of Digital India from the Prime Minister, ”said Goyal.
Predictive entry suggestions using Artificial Intelligence will be given to the passenger when entering the station. This will greatly reduce the hassle of searching for platforms and will also save time booking tickets, the rail ministry said.
The website will also have an easier check of the refund status on the user accounts page. Previously, this function was not easily accessible, the ministry said.
‘Regular’ or ‘favorite’ trips can be easily booked by automatically entering the relevant details.
Train search selection has also been simplified by placing the information on one page to reduce the time spent by passengers and improve the booking experience, the ministry said.
“The level of these features will be even more advanced than what other ticketing websites currently offer. On most websites, the station search entry is still alphabetic, the availability status is not there or is old. In addition, the convenience of the integrated reservation for room and board on this updated electronic ticketing website is unmatched, ”the ministry said.
Today, this IRCTC e-ticketing website has more than 6 million million active users, who use it to book more than 8 million daily tickets. About 83% of the total booked train tickets are booked through this online system.
Availability for all classes will be displayed on the new website along with the respective fares for all trains. In the previous version, the availability of each train seat and fares could be viewed only after clicking on that train individually.
A ‘caching system’ has also been introduced in the backend to provide the availability status. This will avoid delays in loading availabilities.
In the case of tickets on the waiting list, their ‘probability of confirmation’ is shown. To be clear, previously this had to be verified for each waiting list state separately.
Availability for other dates can be alternated on the page itself.
The website has built-in functions to improve cyber security through the use of proper captchas. You will also have directions during the reservation process to make it easier for those passengers who are not very familiar with computers. This will also save you time.
The details of the trip will also be displayed on the payment page. It will ask the user to verify and rectify, if there is any typographical error. These corrections can only be corrected by visiting the PRS center.
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