As a result of much thinking, IRTC finally launches a new system of railway ticket booking, now the passengers can book their ticket simply by sending an SMS from their phone!. This system will reduce the traffic jam in their website.
IRCTC has announced that, there are only two facilities to book train tickets through mobile phones. One is booking through sending a simple text message and the other is by USSD system. These two are the available non-internet booking options for the passengers. The main facility of this system is that, these booking can be done with any phone that you have, even it supports only calling and text messaging.
“The bookings can be made from anywhere and at any time in a secure manner”, said a senior IRCTC official. “There’s no need to log onto the internet or stand in a queue. Any mobile user can operate this system using handsets ranging from feature phones to smart phones.”
In the menu based dialing service, a system called Unstructured Supplementary Data (USSD). this is very useful for those who doesn't know to use internet or doesn't have a net connection. For this system the payment is made through mobile wallet, a facility which many telecom companies offer. For using this facility, one doesn’t need an internet connection and hence no data charges are applied. Also customers don’t have to register with their banks to use this facility.
The IRCTC claims that it has provided a simple menu pattern to book tickets, search stations and to check the availability of trains. “A dedicated telephone number will be provided for carrying out the transactions,” the official said.
For the SMS based service, customers need to register with their banks to generate Mobile Money Identifier [in short MMID], a seven digit random number.
Six berths/seats can be booked in a single transaction through the new systems.
User have to type and send “BOOK” to the designated number. After receiving a transaction ID, the user can make the payment using another SMS “PAY” to the designated number.
To book using mobile wallet, user shall enter the mPIN. Finally user will get a confirmation SMS sent by IRCTC.
IRCTC has announced that, there are only two facilities to book train tickets through mobile phones. One is booking through sending a simple text message and the other is by USSD system. These two are the available non-internet booking options for the passengers. The main facility of this system is that, these booking can be done with any phone that you have, even it supports only calling and text messaging.
“The bookings can be made from anywhere and at any time in a secure manner”, said a senior IRCTC official. “There’s no need to log onto the internet or stand in a queue. Any mobile user can operate this system using handsets ranging from feature phones to smart phones.”
In the menu based dialing service, a system called Unstructured Supplementary Data (USSD). this is very useful for those who doesn't know to use internet or doesn't have a net connection. For this system the payment is made through mobile wallet, a facility which many telecom companies offer. For using this facility, one doesn’t need an internet connection and hence no data charges are applied. Also customers don’t have to register with their banks to use this facility.
The IRCTC claims that it has provided a simple menu pattern to book tickets, search stations and to check the availability of trains. “A dedicated telephone number will be provided for carrying out the transactions,” the official said.
For the SMS based service, customers need to register with their banks to generate Mobile Money Identifier [in short MMID], a seven digit random number.
Six berths/seats can be booked in a single transaction through the new systems.
SMS Based booking
Registered IRCTC users can use this option. The user should generate an MMID in order to book ticket. The mobile number as well as the bank must be registered with IRCTC by the user. The bank will provide MMID and One Time Password for the user (OTP).User have to type and send “BOOK” to the designated number. After receiving a transaction ID, the user can make the payment using another SMS “PAY” to the designated number.
Menu Based Dialing
User shall dial the designated number, then have to select ‘book tickets’ and ‘reservation’ options, and then the details of [train no, station names, journey dates etc] in order to book the ticket in this mode. User will be prompted to enter his IRCTC user ID once during the process.To book using mobile wallet, user shall enter the mPIN. Finally user will get a confirmation SMS sent by IRCTC.
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I never knew that we can book train tickets just by sending an sms to irctc. This seems an easy way of booking tickets compared to online booking. Next time I will try booking through sms. Thanks for sharing this useful info.
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