Booking train tickets is the worst hassle that a traveler and endure. Whether it is the nightmare of standing in the huge queue or even waiting for online booking to pick up, both are a huge pain. So, finally Indian Railways has woken up to fact that the 21st century is here and provided us with a service which lets you book tickets right from your phone.
In case, you find sending elaborate SMSes a hassle, they have also tied up with a mobile service called ngpay. All ngpay is needs is access to the net, via your phone. The ngpay app lets you buy tickets using your debit/credit cards. Instead of putting in your financial information every time, you can enter it once and you will get a 6-digit pin which you can use on it every time. The app connects to around 20 banks.
Besides booking IRCTC tickets, you can book movie tickets, send gifts and shop online using ngpay. While we do welcome the new endeavour, we just hope it is not as bug-ridden as the IRCTC website. Well, when it comes to railway tickets, the easier the better.
In case, you want to get something more than what ngpay offers, there are a lot of other options. If you are an Airtel customer you can use Airtel money and look for stations, trains, availability of tickets, post a PNR enquiry, book or cancel tickets via its USSD system – all you need to do is dial *400#on your handset and you will get the options in front of you.
Cleartrip has also come out with an Android app that lets you book tickets from your smartphone. You can search for trains and book ticket. Along with that, you can check the PNR status of ‘waiting’ tickets. You can also find trains between stations, and look at the availability of seats etc.