Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, 25 December, that the national transporter is working to enhance user personalisation and facilitation of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website along with enhanced features and simple design.
The minister said the IRCTC website remains the first contact point of travelling citizens with the Railways and that the experience must be friendly and convenient.
Earlier in the day, the minister reviewed the upgradation being done on the e-ticketing system. The minister sought that the e-ticketing website should provide holistic convenience to the passengers for their train journey.
“Under the new 'Digital India', more and more people are now moving towards booking tickets online rather than going to the reservation counters and therefore, the IRCTC website needs to double its efforts to constantly upgrade itself,” he said.
IRCTC provides the facility of online passenger reservation in the trains being run by the national transporter, touching the lives of most citizens for their train travel needs.
IRCTC Website New Features
Some of the newly-added features on the IRCTC e-ticketing website for passengers are as follows:
- DISHA AI Chatbot: An artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot called ‘Ask Disha' was introduced on IRCTC's website and IRCTC mobile app. With this facility, queries regarding train journey such as ticket cancellation, catering, ticket booking, etc. can be answered.
- Book Now, Pay Later Feature: IRCTC introduced a new postpaid payment option under 'book now pay later' category. This allows passengers to pay at a later stage for train tickets booked on the IRCTC website. The facility of ‘ePaylater', as well as ‘pay-on-delivery', is available for both reserved and tatkal tickets. The allows passengers to book tickets and make e-payments within a period of 15 days or on the delivery of ticket within 24 hours.
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