IRCTC Railway Ticket Booking Possible via SMS from July 2013

IRCTC is now making it possible to easily book railway ticket from mobile phones. Now the train tickets can be booked by simply sending an SMS through ones phone. The good thing is that any mobile user can operate this system using handsets ranging from feature phones to smartphones.

In fact, it started in January 2012, when IRCTc started working on revamping its mobile apps for booking tickets from smartphones. Following that the railways also allowed passengers to show SMS sent from IRCTC as proof of ticket instead of showing a regular paper tickets to ticket examiner.

Now it's a relief for those who feel irritated and lazy to connect through the internet to book a ticket. Now travelers can just SMS and get the tickets through SMS.

The regular booking process involved going to the IRCTC website and booking the ticket and receiving an SMS containing ticket details like PNR, train number, date of journey. The SMS service would also have similar details like name and number of passengers, coach and seat number and fare paid. The SMS may also accommodate the names of all passengers booked on the e-ticket, otherwise maximum number of passengers.

Actually, the similar SMS process is mostly used by banking sector, booking air tickets, calling a cab, etc. Reports suggest that the SMS services for booking the railway tickets would be available from July.

Reportedly a newspaper report quoting a senior IRCTC official said, "The bookings can be made from anywhere and at any time in a secure manner without a need to log onto the internet or stand in a queue."

Although there is no detailed information as to how IRCTC's new ticket booking system will work but as the launch date is coming closer IRCTC will be soon sharing further information of the same.