New IRCTC rules for online reservations

April 18, 2018 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) started off small when it was launched in 2002.

On its first day, only 29 online tickets were booked. However, the IRCTC has grown significantly since then.

Today, over 13 lakh online tickets are booked through the IRCTC’s online portal.

Although the number of booked online tickets has grown over the years, the amount of malpractices in the system has also grown.

Since about 2 crore people travel by the Indian Railways every day, the Railways has issued some fresh guidelines to provide better services for their many customers.

These are some important things to know about the new Indian Railways’ guidelines.

Six tickets can be booked per month from a single user ID. However, Aadhaar-verified users can book up to 12 tickets per month.

A person can only book two tickets during the opening hours. These opening hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., single page or quick book services will not be available. A user can also only have one login session at a time.

Captcha is available at the login page, the passenger details page, and the payment page.

Now, users are required to answer a security question after filling in their personal information, such as their username, email, and mobile number. This is a new level of security that will help protect users better.

Agents are allowed to book tickets during three time intervals. They can book them between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and between 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

However, during the first 30 minutes after online reservation opens, tatkal tickets cannot be booked by authorized travel agents.

The online ticket booking is now time sensitive. The standard time needed to fill out passenger details is 25 seconds. The minimum input time for Captcha on the passenger details page and the payment page is 5 seconds.

Ten seconds are given for making payments. Also, the One-time password (OTP) system is now mandatory for payments through Net banking for all users and banks.

Image credit: Photo by Sid Balachandran on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)