IRCTC offers online `tatkal’ tickets on cash-on-delivery basis

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering tatkal tickets online, which can be booked using credit or debit card or will be delivered at their doorsteps on a cash-on-delivery basis.

IRCTC users will be able to pay via cash, debit card or credit card by opting to have tickets delivered at their doorstep, said IRCTC payment provider Anduril Technologies.

Till now, this service was available only for general reservations. For tatkal bookings people had to pay first via the standard online payment gateways before the IRCTC portal confirmed their ticket.

IRCTC processes 130,000 tatkal transactions daily. A majority of these tickets is booked within minutes of the quota opening.

The new feature eliminates the transaction failures as often the money gets debited and the ticket is not issued due to multiple reasons. The refund cycle is of about seven to 15 days.

"The pay on delivery feature completely circumvents the use of a payment gateway and will help users make the bookings in just a few seconds greatly increasing their chance of booking a confirmed ticket under the tatkal quota," said Anduril Technologies CEO Anurag Bajpai.

''Pay on delivery for Tatkal tickets is going to be a huge benefit to for millions of train travellers who need to book under the Tatkal quota. Users already understand that every second is precious while booking a train ticket under Tatkal and we are confident that the option to book first, pay later will find significant adoption among users,'' he added.

Customers need to first register at `irctc.payondelivery.co.in' in order to avail of IRCTC's 'pay on delivery' option by tendering either Aadhaar or PAN details at the time of registration. While booking the ticket on IRCTC, the user needs to choose the 'pay-on-delivery' option. The digital delivery of rail ticket happens instantly via SMS / Email. The delivery will be made within 24 hours of the booking, says Anduril Technologies.

Customers can also pay online through a payment link that will be sent to them at time of booking.