IRCTC has launched a new e-wallet service to make booking e-tickets easier for customers. Which means, users won’t have to go through a bank portal every time to book a ticket.

The online ticketing arm of Indian railways, has launched a new e-wallet service to make booking e-tickets easier for customers. Which means, customers won’t have to go through a bank portal every time to book a ticket.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) e-wallet service acts like any other ewallet scheme, where in customers will have to open an account with the ticketing site and fill it up with money in order to use it at the time of booking.

The facility was launched about two weeks ago.

Usually while booking tickets on the IRCTC site users are directed to the respective net banking or card payment portal and then redirected back to the IRCTC site after the payment approval. But a lot of the times this step does not go through smoothly and you might end up missing out on the ticket.

The eWallet service will be quicker as it does away with the payment approval procedure and also save the user the Payment Gateway charges.

Steps for starting eWallet account on IRCTC

Login to your IRCTC account. Select “eWallet Registration” link on the ‘Plan my travel’ page. Submit PAN card number & name for verification. After verification create a transactions password. Pay eWallet registration fee of Rs 250 through the available payment options.

Users can deposit a in multiple os Rs 100 (Minimum deposit is Rs 100) upto a maximum of Rs 5000 into their eWallet. The deposit amounts are non-refundable.

Payment for the ticket can be made using the eWallet, which will be displayed as a payment option along with others. But note that the eWallet facility is not available from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and all ticket cancellation refunds are credited back to the eWallet. This time restriction practically defeats the purpose as it is unavailable during peak hours. The only reason someone might want to use the e-wallet is to do away with the pain of going through a bank payment gateway while booking a ticket in a hurry during peak traffic hours (especially when Tatkal booking opens in the morning). But if its not available between 8 am -12 noon, it beats the purpose.

IRCTC recently revamped its website and backend to support higher traffic and faster ticketing.