International travellers can avail benefits of train ticket at IRCTC; here’s how

After introducing various facilities for domestic train passengers, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has now prepped up in bringing flexibility for international travellers as well. India is among favorite tourist spots for foreigners due to it’s various culture, language and tradition. Each month foreigner travel to this country, and in order to help them visit their favorite destination IRCTC is boosting the train journey. Now, any international travellers who wish to travel through train can avail benefits under a foreign tourist quota booking at IRCTC e-ticketing website.

IRCTC through it’s twitter account titled @IRCTCofficial said, “International travelers can avail the benefits of train ticket booking under the foreign tourist quota at the IRCTC e-ticketing website https://www.irctc.co.in/.”

अंतर्राष्ट्रीय यात्री आईआरसीटीसी ई-टिकटिंग वेबसाइट https://t.co/s3mX8V8YUd पर विदेशी पर्यटक कोटा के तहत ट्रेन टिकट बुकिंग का लाभ उठा सकते हैं। pic.twitter.com/e7WI9SsHcz

— IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) May 27, 2018

Here’s what you need to know about foreign tourist quota.

Foreign Tourists (including NRIs) holding valid passport can now avail Foreign Tourist Quota facility to book railway tickets online using IRCTC eTicketing website www.irctc.co.in.

International Users can book tickets under Foreign Tourist Quota upto 365 days in advance. For bookings done within current Advance Reservation Period (ARP), berths will be allocated at the time of booking. While for bookings done beyond current ARP period, berths will be provided at the later stage when allotted by Railways PRS system at the time of opening the ARP.

Users will be notified about berth allocation through International SMS facility. At present, ARP on Indian Railways is 120 days.  

Steps to avail Foreign Tourist Quota:

In case if you are a new user then you must first register yourself at  www.irctc.co.in.  However for old users and NRIs  are required to Update and verify their mobile number through Update profile option on IRCTC e-Ticketing website.

Ticket booking

• After getting logged in select “Foreign Tourist Ticket Booking” link under “Services” option of IRCTC eTicketing website
• User can book tickets under Foreign Tourist Quota upto 365 days in advance
• Available classes of travel under Foreign Tourist Quota are Executive Class (EC), 1st AC (1A) and 2 nd AC (2A)
• User has to provide valid Passport number of each passenger at the time of booking tickets.  All SMS communications from IRCTC will be sent on mobile number submitted and verified by user while updating profile
• For payment of ticket booking amount, User has the option to make payment using International Debit/Credit card
• After successful payment and booking of ticket, Booking SMS and confirmation mail will be sent on registered mobile number and e-mail id respectively

Charges

• Registration / profile updation (mobile number) fee for International /NRI User is Rs. 100 + GST
• There is a Service Charge of Rs 200 + GST per ticket booked in addition to Rail Ticket fare under Foreign Tourist Quota through IRCTC eTicketing website

Cancellation

• In case of cancellation by User, 50% of the fare shall be deducted in addition to the cancellation charges. Time limits for cancellation of tickets booked online are as per extant rules set by Indian Railway
• In case berth is not allotted by Railway PRS system, ticket will be automatically cancelled and Cancellation SMS / Email with details will be sent to the user on registered mobile number / email id respectively

Refunds

• Refunds amount if any, will be credited only in the account which was used for ticket booking
• IRCTC's payment reconciliation team works on a 24 x 7 basis, IRCTC offers no guarantees whatsoever for the accuracy or timeliness of the refunds reaching the Customers card/bank accounts. This is on account of the multiplicity of organizations involved in processing of online transactions, the problems with Internet infrastructure currently available and working days/holidays of financial institutions
• All refund will be processed as per extant Railway Refund Rules