A revamped website of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was launched by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday. The site will allow users to navigate and book their travel needs with minimal clicks.

Features of the website will make it easier for the traveller to book tickets, hotels, cabs and meals, said PS Mishra, Member-Business Development and Operations, Railway Board.

Mishra and IRCTC CMD MP Mall thanked the contribution of OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal in terms of suggestions. The new website enables booking of meals, retiring rooms and hotels on a single page along with the tickets, providing a one-stop solution for the needs of the traveller.

Also, passengers will get predictive entry suggestions using Artificial Intelligence, which will reduce the hassle in searching for stations and also save time in ticket booking. There will be simpler checking of the refund status on the user accounts page. Earlier, this feature was not easily accessible. Regular or favourite journeys can be booked easily by automatically entering relevant details.

At present, the e-ticketing website of IRCTC has more than 6 crore active users. Around 83 per cent of the total reserved railway tickets are booked through online system post Covid-19, against 73 per cent in the pre-Covid times.

In another move, Goyal wondered if the 12.5 lakh Railway employees can use SBI-IRCTC card. He also wondered if all the existing 6 crore user base of IRCTC could be convinced to use the SBI-IRCTC card.

IRCTC and CRIS are also working on ‘Smart Booking’ feature to help book connecting trains on alternative routes.

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