Rail Budget 2013: Bansal promises revamped IRCTC, free Wifi in trains

As part of his Railway Budget speech, railway minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, today emphasised that the need to improve the e-ticketing service via the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Company (IRCTC) website.The minister acknowledged that users do face a lot of trouble while trying to book tickets online via IRCTC and said that he had heard a lot of complaints about how it was taking people a long time to book a ticket.Bansal said that, "By this calendar year we will put in place a e-ticketing system to bring about a paradigm change." He said that the new system would ensure that IRCTC will allow 7,200 tickets per minute as compared to 2,000 users that it currently supports. The new system will also allow IRCTC to support 1 lakh users at a time compared to the current 20,000 users. It will also use advanced fraud control measures to improve sale of tickets.[caption id="attachment_639888" align="alignleft" width="380"] Screengrab of IRCTC website.[/caption]The minister also assured that the new system is not just for benefit of booking tickets but also to provide a better interface for pensions and other financial transactions for employees. The minister also promised Free Wifi access in some special trains. He assured that the Railways would try and ensure that transactions on the IRCTC website as safe and secure. E-ticketing through mobile phones might also be available by the end of this year as the minister mentioned this in his speech. Mobile e-ticketing will show and allow updation of ticket status as well.