Indian Railway provides online booking facility on its websites. Indian Railways customer can book and reserve ticket online and pay for their tickets with a credit card, debit card or a bank account. Each year, Indian Railways transports about 6 billion people and 7 billion tones of freight.

Screenshot of www.indianrailways.gov.in

About Indian Railways

On 16 April 1857, Indian Railways was founded and its headquarters is located in New Delhi, India. It is the leading Rail transport company of India. It operates most of the rail transport and infrastructure in country. It is owned and controlled by the Government of India, the Ministry of Railways. The Railway Ministry is headed by Mamata Banerjee and Union Minister for Railways and assisted by two State ministers for Railways, as of May 2010.

Www.indianrail.gov.in and www.irctc.co.in is online booking site for Indian Railways. Indian Railways has one of the biggest and busiest rail networks in the world and has more than 1.6 million employees. Indian Railways network covers 6,909 stations over a total route length of over 63,327 kilometers. Indian Railways owns over 200,000 wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives of rolling stock.

Indian Railways Online Ticket Booking:

From the Indian Railways official website, you can check the status of the tickets, reservation and PNR status online. The site provides ticket booking and reservation information online. Those people who have knowledge of internet on computers can easily do the reservation their self. One of the biggest advantages of online ticket booking is that one can do the reservation from home with internet access computer.

Indian Railways have three best websites:

For Indian Railway online ticket booking & reservation www.irctc.co.in is best way and for checking Indian Railways PNR Status, go to the www.indianrail.gov.in site.

www.indianrail.gov.in -

Fare information and PNR Status for Indian Railways are accessible online on this site. The www.indianrail.gov.in site is mostly mistyped as indianrailways.com, indianrail.com and Indianrailways.gov.in by users.

www.irctc.co.in -

This website is for Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), the Asia’s largest e-Commerce Website. The Indian Railways Online Booking website is also www.irctc.co.in.

www.trainenquiry.com -

From this website, you will know about all the trains operated by Indian Railways. Trains Timetable and current running information on current status of trains and general information are accessible at the www.trainenquiry.com. Only enter your train number OR train name to search.

How to book Indian Railways Ticket online?

To book Indian Railways Ticket online, first you need to create a new account at www.irctc.co.in, register yourself by providing basic information and there is also option to choose additional features like Mumbai suburban season ticket booking, mobile railway ticket booking, preferred payment option for sms based booking, registration options for SBI Railway Credit Card and Subh Yatra and signup options for special offers, news letters and commercial offers.

After registration, you can login in to your account with user id and password anytime when you want to book ticket.

Tickets:

There are two types of online tickets provided by Indian Railways; first one is i-ticket and other e-ticket.

I-ticket:-

It is a normal ticket that will be delivered in 2-3 days time after your booking. It means you have to book the ticket at least two days in advance. These types of tickets are issued for Waiting List, Confirmed and RAC (Reservation after Cancellation) cases.

For making i-ticket booking, first login in account using your user name and password, then you will be directed on the “Plan my travel” page, where you can enter your destination station name like From/To station, select date, i-Ticket option and the type of Quota, click on "Find Trains" option, then train list will be displayed that show the number of trains available for your route.

Click on the train name in the "List of Trains", if you want to know the route and the train timings. For the fare details, click on class available for that select train in "List of Trains" then it will show the train details with availability. Click on “Book” button, for booking tickets. In order to select other train, click on "RESET" button.

The fare will be displayed for a single adult Passenger excluding the service charges charged by IRCTC and by the Bank on Credit Card or Direct Debit.

E-ticket:-

This ticket can be booked up to the time of chart preparation for your train. You have to enter your ID proof details like PAN Card, Voter’s ID Card, Passport, Ration Card, Central/State Govt. ID Card or Driving License, when you book an e-ticket. Once you book tickets, just take a printout of the Electronic Reservation Slip and bring it during travel with the ID proof.

To make e-ticket booking, first login in account using your user name and password, then you will be directed on the “Plan my travel” page, where you can enter your destination station name like From/To station, select date, e-ticket option and the type of Quota, click on "Find Trains" option, then train list will be displayed that show the number of trains available for your route.

Payment Options:

• Payment by Credit Cards like Citibank Cards, Diners Club Cards, ICICI Bank Cards, American Express Cards will be accepted. Agents can book through any Visa/Master/Amex cards.
• Payment by Direct Debit Facility – ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI, Citibank, Bank of Punjab, Oriental Bank of Commerce, UTI, State Bank of India, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Punjab National Bank, ABN-AMRO, Federal Bank, Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, ITZ Cash, State Bank of Travancore, Andhra Bank, Icash Card, Karnataka Bank, SBI debit card, HDFC Debit Card, etc.

Important Notes:

• For e-tickets, while traveling you must carry the electronic reservation slip otherwise you will have to pay a fine of Rs 50.
• E-tickets can be cancelled only through internet. Cancellation will be confirmed online and the money will be credited to the same back account.

Source: www.indianrailways.gov.in

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