Indian Railways has announced several new updates and
programs this week. Here is a quick brief:
No IDs Required For Tatkal Tickets
Indian Railways has decided to stop the
practice of asking identity proofs during booking –both online and offline.
As per an official release, the ID proof would only be required to show during
the journey.
As of now, passengers are mandated to provide booking clerk an attested copy
of their identity proof while booking from counter, and mention the ID number
in online bookings.
Stopping of this step will certainly benefit the passenger during tatkal
bookings, as much time is lost in arranging such photocopies and providing them
to the booking clerk.
IRCTC Requests Banks For Providing OTPS
As of now, IRCTC has formally partnered with 50 banks for providing payment
options during an online booking. However, only 24 banks have One Time Password
(OTP) arrangement, which creates fraud possibilities and obstruct smooth flow
for the Railways.
IRCTC has formally requested all the remaining banks to initiate OTP
procedure so that customers don’t face any hassle while booking tickets.
In fact, these 26 banks without OTP system has been given a deadline of August
15th to implement the same.
IRCTC GM (software) M Srinivas said, “We need to implement OTP system by all
the banks with a view to checking fraudulent transactions on the IRCTC website.
Railway crime branch has also put the IRCTC on alert about fraudulent
transactions,”
Out of these 50 banks, 28 banks provide net banking, six offer payment
gateways, 10 provide debit card option, 4 offer cash cards while 1 each is
EMI-based and IRCTC prepaid card system.
