The launch of Hindi version of Irctc.co.in will facilitate e-Ticketing portal services for a large section of Hindi speaking population of our country. As a consequence, e-Ticketing service should become more popular and user friendly. This is a significant step forward in fulfilling the Minister of Railways' Budget announcement of multilingual e-ticketing portal.

This is one of the first e-commerce portals made available in Hindi which has a large user base spread all over the country and beyond.

The salient features of the Hindi web-site are as follows:

•         All pages, information, navigation steps, guidelines, alerts & updates, error messages and feedback form are now available in Hindi.

•         All Dynamic information relating to accommodation availability, ticket details, journey planner etc. will be displayed in Hindi.

•         Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) and cancellation slip will be printed in Hindi.

•         Citizens who only know Hindi can now easily navigate on the E-ticketing website and perform booking and cancellation transactions, view their transaction history and conduct enquiries.

Paperless Unreserved Ticketing through Mobile Phones

Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has developed a paperless Unreserved Ticketing feature in Mobile Application "utsonmobile" both for Android and Windows platforms. This will eliminate the need for printing of Unreserved Tickets on ATVMs at the stations. User can download 'App' from Google Play Store or Window Store free of cost.

This service is being rolled out on the Churchgate - Dhanuroad Suburban Section of Western Railway covering 35 stations over 123 km distance. For paperless ticketing, GPS co-ordinates of suburban railway tracks on the Churchgate – Dhanuroad Suburban Section, plus 30 meters on either side of the tracks have been earmarked as Geo-Fencing area within which no ticket booking is allowed in order to ensure that passengers have ticket before commencing the journey.

The application provides necessary on-screen alerts to guide the passenger during the booking process. Payment for the ticket is done through the "Railway Wallet" feature in the "App". After booking the ticket, the passenger will get the ticket confirmation screen which contains limited information of the ticket. The paperless journey ticket will be stored in the local mobile application database in the encrypted form which cannot be tampered with. The passenger has to start the journey within 1 hour as per policy for suburban sections. Ticket booked in paperless mode cannot be cancelled in order to prevent claiming of refund after travel.

The ticket has distinct colour scheme everyday and it is embedded with Quick Response (QR) code. It cannot be forwarded to another mobile or edited or printed. The old invalid tickets will be removed from the mobile device through a sync feature in the 'App'.

For the purpose of ticket checking, the application has various features such as colour scheme, show ticket features, secret code of the day, booking time of the ticket and scrolling of legend "IR UNRESERVED TICKETING". In case of mobile in disconnected mode, it will be checked through QR Code.

Destination Alert Service

Destination Alert is a free value-added service to the travelling passengers to alert them about arrival of the train at their respective destinations. It is targeted towards all passengers whose destination comes at night between 11 PM and 7 AM. Our aim is to relieve the anxiety of such passengers. This service involves sending an SMS to a passenger 15 minutes before the train is expected to reach his/her destination during night hours (23:00 to 07:00 hrs). Hence, the passengers are required to provide their mobile number at the time of booking.

The service is being introduced in all Rajdhani and Duronto trains.