IRCTC sells Rs 9,500 cr worth train tickets in 2011-12

New Delhi: Over 11 crore train tickets involving about Rs 9,500 crore fare were booked during 2011-12 through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) online portal, the highest in the past ten years.

About 11.61 crore train tickets involving fare of Rs 9,498.45 crore were booked through IRCTC website in the last fiscal. During 2010-11, 9.69 crore tickets involving amount of about Rs 8,007.16 crore, were booked through the portal, according to information received in response to an RTI query.[caption id=“attachment_529564” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Increasing online bookings. Reuters[/caption]

As many as 1.99 lakh tickets (Rs 26.39 crore fare) were booked during 2002-03, it said.

The IRCTC, a public sector enterprise, also said that it was getting about 5,000 each telephone calls and e-mails were being received everyday on various queries or issues from the website users.

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“There is no such disputed amount on account of booking of train tickets. The complaints regarding non-realisation of amount after being deducted from their respective bank accounts are resolved within 3-4 days. This is being done on routine manner basis, as such, record is not maintained.

“About 5,000 e-mails and 5,000 telephonic calls pertaining to various queries or issues from e-ticket website users are received everyday,” the reply said.

The IRCTC said it does not have detail of unclaimed amount on account of train booked tickets since it only facilitates its customers to book ticket through its website.

“Close coordination is done with all payment gateways to ensure smooth transactions. There is no case of non-refund of customer’s money for ticket not booked,” it said.

About 7.27 lakh tickets were booked in 2003-04, 12.81 lakh in 2004-05, 25.73 lakh in 2005-06, 68.23 lakh in 2006-07, 1.89 crore in 2007-08, 4.40 crore in 2008-09 and 7.19 crore in 2009-10.

A total of Rs 98.56 crore as fare was collected during 2003-04, Rs 169.86 crore in 2004-05, Rs 317.06 crore in 2005-06, Rs 678.63 crore in 2006-07, Rs 1,700.93 crore in 2007-08, Rs 3,883.70 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 6,011.45 crore in 2009-10 by the IRCTC, the reply said.

The IRCTC has given back about Rs 18 crore through Ticket Deposit Receipts (TDRs), a procedure for claiming refunds on various grounds including AC failure and failing to travel on the booked train tickets, between 1 January and 15 October, this year.

About 17.78 lakh TDR request were filed this year and Rs 18 crore were given to public. In 2011, 18 lakh TDRs were processed and Rs 22.27 crore were refunded, it said.

The IRCTC said about 9.4 lakh such requests were processed in 2010 and Rs 14.95 crore were refunded as against 5.6 lakh TDRs processed in 2009 in which Rs 21.77 crore were given to different claimants.

A customer can filed TDR if he or she was not able to perform the journey due to cancellation of train by Railways, wrongly charged by Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) and in case train is running late by more than three hours among other reasons.

All TDR received online are forwarded to concerned Railway for finalisation. As and when the amount is received from the Railway against the TDR the same is credited into the account of customer, it said.

To a query over steps being taken by IRCTC to improve the working of IRCTC, it said further upgradation of software and hardware is planned.The IRCTC has installed high capacity data base servers to improve e-ticketing service.

PTI