IRCTC Ticket Booking: Reservation Process, Service Charges And Other Details

IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) offers online booking of tickets on its official website- irctc.co.in. Full fare tickets including Tatkal, child tickets, ticket for persons with disabilities, accredited press correspondents and senior citizens at concessional rates can be booked through the website. According to Indian Railways portal- indianrailways.gov.in, e-tickets can be booked for journey between any two stations on the route of the train including originating station and destination. When ticket is successfully booked an SMS is sent to the customer detailing the PNR (Passenger Name Record), ticket status and fare charged.

Here are key things to know about IRCTC ticket booking:

1. A maximum of 6 tickets can be booked by an individual user in a month via IRCTC's website/app. However, the ceiling limit has been raised to 12 tickets for the individual users, where accounts are verified through Aadhaar ID and one of the passengers in the ticket booked is verifiable through Aadhaar.

2. During the journey even if one passenger booked on an e-ticket presents any of the Identity cards in original, the same is accepted as proof of identity. If none of the passengers is carrying any proof of Identity, all the passengers are treated as travelling without ticket and are charged accordingly.

3. If the passengers fail to carry the electronic reservation slip (ERS)/SMS sent by IRCTC containing journey details, a penalty of Rs 50 is imposed by the ticket checking staff.

4. Tickets on internet can be booked from 00:20 hrs to 23:45 hrs on all days, said Indian Railways.

5. Service charge of Rs 20 is charged for second/sleeper class and Rs 40 is charged in case of all other higher classes (1AC, 2AC, 3AC, CC, 3E, FC) per e-ticket, irrespective of the number of passengers (maximum six) booked on an e-ticket. GST(Goods and Services Tax) is extra.