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TAAI pushes through landmark railway ticketing initiative

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

TAAI has pushed through a landmark initiative with the Indian Railways which will allow Indian IATA-approved travel agents access to potential 6.5 billion railway passengers annually. Following a long period of lobbying with the Ministry of Railways and Indian Railways' authorities by TAAI, the Indian Railways issued a circular, signed by Sudhir Kumar, member of the Railways Board. The circular states IATA agents will now be able to book tickets on behalf of their passengers on the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. Commission on tickets sold will be consolidated under IRCTC which will then remit the same to agents.

TAAI president Ashwini Kakkar, who has been lobbying for the travel agent community's access to railway ticketing, said, "Effort towards this reform has been invested for the past three and half years, entailing dialogue with over three ministers who held the portfolio during that period as well as the chairmen of the Railway Board. Consider this - while airlines carried 24 million passengers a year, the Indian Railways carries 15 billion passengers annually of which long haul passengers account for 6.5 billion. Previously, each time a single ticket had to be booked, it required a physical visit to the station. Now, agents can book online for their clients," Kakkar said.

IRCTC expects ticket sales off its website to rise to 1,00,000 from the current peak of 22,000 a day. Earlier IRCTC had authorised 1,000 Rail Travellers Service Agents (RTSAs) to sell and distribute tickets via the Net - an arrangement that only exacerbated the problems of traveller access to inventory, eventually spiraling into a legal issue.

Also with the extension of e-ticketing to all railway inventory, the authorities needed larger distributor base. Kakkar said that certain modalities were still being worked out and while IATA accreditation was perceived, in a sense as security with regard to payments in time, the Indian Railways will either create an operating system to facilitate and monitor the same or outsource it. Plans are also afoot to allow agents to issue e-tickets that integrate rail, air and road transport.

Railway ticket commissions at present stand at Rs 60 for upper class and Rs 40 for sleeper on internet tickets and electronic tickets, the commission is Rs 40 and Rs 25 respectively. E-tickets require a government approved identification and can be printed immediately, while i-tickets are delivered in three days. While IRCTC will not allot inventory to individual agents, the latter can in turn block boogies in their capacity as tour operators. Software changes are expected to be in effect within 60 days, paving the way for agents to start booking tickets for their customers. GDS companies, ETW was informed, are already talking to the Indian Railways to provide the reservation software solution. The imminent launch of the domestic BSP is expected to spur this initiative.