An Introduction to IRCTC - Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

IRCTC stands for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. It is an Indian Railways subsidiary and takes care of the online ticketing, catering, and tourism operations. Ever since its launch, IRCTC totally revolutionised rail travel in India. In fact, soon after its inception, it became the fastest growing as well as the largest e-commerce website across the entire Asia-Pacific region. So much so, that hordes of private players took their cue from IRCTC well-known sites like ixigo have long since jumped into the fray. The biggest benefactor has been the passenger, who gets to check out Indian Railways seat availability and check out lots of other information from the comfort of his or her own home. Now, here is a look at different services offered by IRCTC. Making Railway Reservation Making railway reservation through IRCTC is highly popular amongst travellers. One simply needs to visit the website and click on ‘Signup’. The next step is to fill up an online form. This completes your registration with IRCTC. Now, armed with a username and password, you are ready to book tickets. All you need to do is to enter your username and password. This will take you to the ‘Plan my travel’ page. By filling in the relevant fields and making an online payment, you are ready with your train reservation, subject to the availability of seats. Checking PNR Status Besides making railway reservation, the IRCTC website comes in handy for many other purposes. For instance, keeping track of PNR status is another important functionality offered by the website. To check the status of your PNR, you will first have to visit the website and click on ‘Enquiry’. Now, different sub-headings will pop up under the main heading of ‘Enquiry’. One of these sub headings is ‘PNR Enquiry’. Clicking on this option will take you to another link. This page will have a blank field, where you will be required to fill in your PNR number. After this, you will be able to access your PNR status by clicking on ‘Get Status’. Tracking Indian Railways Seat Availability IRCTC services are also largely used for accessing Indian Railways seat availability information. You can easily check status by visiting the website and feeding in required information by way of destination name, date of journey, and source city. Another field is for choice of class, wherein you need to specify the class you want to travel in. One has better chances of scoring a reservation by opting for ‘My classes are flexible'. So, this is how you can check the availability of seats and finally make your railway reservation.