Looking to tap into the large mass of
passengers that do not have access to internet banking or debit cards, a
pilot project for cash on delivery of train tickets will start next month from
Delhi. Within six months, the service will be extended to over 150 cities.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation has tied up with a private player for ‘e-dakiya’ cash on delivery
services on a separate portal, bookmytrain.com.
The domain name is registered with
Anduril Technologies, which will manage the project, according to IRCTC
executives.
The service will cost more as the
private player will charge Rs 60 for delivery of a ticket in an air-conditioned
compartment and Rs 40 for a ticket in ones without air-conditioning.
These charges are over and above the
IRCTC’s service fee, bank charges and other taxes.
Tatkal tickets can be bought and no
preference will be given in the booking process to the private player.
This company will act as a travel
agent without blocking availability of tickets for passengers buying e-tickets.
At a time when e-commerce players are
plagued by high product returns ordered through cash on delivery, IRCTC says it
is guarded against this risk.
The private partner will pay IRCTC
upfront for all booked tickets. The risk related to collecting cash and
delivery lies with the private player,” said an IRCTC executive.
IRCTC books more than half of all
reserved train tickets.
In 2013, about 140.6 million e-tickets
were booked on the IRCTC portal.
“The idea is to reach consumers who do
not have debit cards or who are not comfortable sharing bank details online.
“This project can take a lot of load
off booking counters as more people will booking online,” said an official from the information technology
department of the railways.
IRCTC earlier provided an
i-ticket service where tickets were delivered to passengers who paid for them
online.
But soon after e-ticketing took off.
The i-ticket service was taken off the
new IRCTC portal because very few people used the service, said IRCTC
executives.
A new e-ticketing system developed by
the Centre of Railway Information Systems was launched by IRCTC recently with a
capacity to book 7,200 tickets per minute.
