Tatkal tickets: Book online, pay IRCTC later

Tatkal train tickets can now be booked online, and the amount paid later.

IRCTC users will be able to pay for tickets via cash or a debit or credit card by opting to have tickets delivered at their doorstep, stated a release by Anduril Technologies, a company which extended the service to the general e-ticket booking, but not those who booked Tatkal .

IRCTC processes 1,30,000 Tatkal transactions daily, and a majority of these tickets are booked within minutes of Tatkal quota being opened for booking.

The ‘pay on delivery’ feature circumvents the use of a payment gateway and will help users make the bookings in just a few seconds; increasing their chance of booking a confirmed ticket under the Tatkal quota as availability can turn into waitlisted ticket during the time taken to validate a transaction on a payment gateway.

Poor internet connectivity can make online payments difficult, stated a release by Anduril Technologies, which is absorbing the payment gateway charges as per an ongoing offer.

The digital delivery of ticket happens immediately through a short message service or e-mail, although the collection of payment happens within 24 hours of the booking.

Customers can also pay online through a payment link that will be sent to them at time of booking and get ₹ 50 off if they pay within four hours of booking. As per Anduril Technologies, online payment process can be longer and cumbersome—owing to multiple verification checks by banks —whereas payment on delivery transaction can be done in almost half the time taken for online payments.

In case of refusal or cancellation before delivery, the customer will be liable to pay the cancellation and delivery charges, failing which may attract deactivation of user’s account and strict action as per law.

Anurag Bajpai, CEO of Anduril Technologies, said that the move by IRCTC aims to encourage people who buy tickets off the Railway reservation counters to move to online medium. Customers need to first register with IRCTC’s payondelivery link to avail themselves of the option.

In a related move, IRCTC has also introduced a scheme of booking e-ticket online and making payment after 15 days through ‘ePaylater’ powered by Arthashastra Fintech as a pilot project. Under this scheme, a customer has the option to pay after 15 days of booking an e-ticket through IRCTC website.

The service charge levied on using ‘ePaylater’ scheme is 3.5 per cent of transaction amount and applicable taxes.

Online ticketing through IRCTC website is gaining popularity and its share vis-à-vis counter tickets is increasing. Further, online ticket booking is also being promoted as a cashless mode of transaction.

ePaylater as a payment option is displayed at the payment page of IRCTC website to make people aware of the availability of this payment method, according to an official release based on the information given by the Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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