Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaIndian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

TypeSubsidiary of theIndian Railways

IndustryRailways

HeadquartersNew Delhi,India

Area servedIndia

ServicesCatering, Tourism and Online Ticketing

ParentIndian Railways

WebsiteIRCTC website

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) is a subsidiary of theIndian Railwaysthat handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the railways.

Contents[hide] 1Services 1.1Catering 1.2Online ticketing 1.3Tourism 2Awards and achievements 3References 4External links

[edit]Services[edit]CateringIRCTC1 is in charge of catering services on trains and railway stations across India. Depending on the distance covered by the train and average passengerload factor, the railways either equips trains with their own pantry cars or provides meals at select stations en route.[edit]Online ticketingIRCTC is better known for changing the face of railway ticketing in India. It pioneeredInternet-based rail ticket booking through its website, as well as from mobile phones viaGPRSorSMS. Ticket cancellations or modifications can also be done online. In addition toE-tickets, IRCTC also offers I-tickets that are basically like regular tickets except that they are booked online and delivered by post. The Tickets PNR Status is also made available here recently.Commuters onMumbai's suburban railwaycan also book season tickets through the IRCTC website.IRCTC has also recently launched a loyalty program called "Shubh Yatra" for frequent travellers. Through this program, passengers can avail of discounts on all tickets booked round the year by paying an upfront annual fee.[1][edit]TourismIRCTC also organizes budget and deluxe package tours for domestic and foreign tourists. A popular tourism package for budget tourists covering important tourist destination across India isBharat Darshan.[2]Luxury tourism packages are also available, that involve special luxury trains such as: Palace on Wheels Royal Orient Express Golden Chariot Deccan Odyssey Royal Rajasthan on Wheels Buddhist Circuit Trainand IRCTC is a partner in theMaharajas Expressoperation.[3]One may log on torailtourismindia.com.[4]and book Rail Tour Package, Holiday Package, Hotels, Cabs, Tourist Trains online.Apart from conventional tourism, IRCTC also offers adventure tourism packages that include water sports, adventure and wildlife treks, etc. A provision for customising tours as per specific requirements is also an added attraction.

[edit]Awards and achievementsWithin a short span of its going online, the IRCTC website had become the largest and the fastest growinge-commercewebsite in theAsia-Pacificregion, with about six lakh registered users in 2003.[5]Some of the other awards won by IRCTC are: Awarded theNational Tourism Award of ExcellencebyMinistry of Tourism,Govt. of India. Awarded theNational Award for E-Governance, 2007-08 jointly by Department of IT, Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana. Awarded theGenius of the Web Award 2007for being the "Best E-Governance PSU Site" byCNBC. IRCTC Tourism Unit of West Zone declared winner for the categoryBest Value Leisure ProductinTravel and Tourism Fair of India(TTF & OTM 2008) held inMumbaifrom 9 to 11 February 2008. WonNational award for E-Governancefor being "Best Citizen Centric Application" for the year 2007-08. IRCTC Tourism Unit declared winner for the categoryMost Innovative Productin Travel and Tourism Fair of India (TTF & OTM 2007) held in Mumbai from 10 to 12 February 2007. WonCSI-Nihilent E-Governance awardfor "Best E-Governance Project" in 2007. Won theICICI BankRetail Excellence Awardin2005. WonPath Breaker AwardfromDataquestin2003and2004. Awarded theMini Ratna Category-1byMinistry of Railways,Govt. of India

[edit]References1. ^Shubh Yatra loyalty program2. ^Bharat Darshan3. ^Gupta, Jayanta (2010-03-19)."Rs 1 lakh a night on Maharajas Express".Times of India. Retrieved 2010-04-06.4. ^[1]5. ^"At your doorstep". The Hindu.

[edit]External links IRCTC website Official Indian Rail Tourism website

This Indian Railways-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

Categories:Rail transport in India|Railway companies of India|Catering and food service companies of India|India rail stubs Log in / create account Article Discussion Read Edit View historyTop of FormBottom of Form Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to WikipediaInteraction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact WikipediaToolboxPrint/exportLanguages This page was last modified on 22 December 2010 at 08:15. Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. SeeTerms of Usefor details.Wikipedia is a registered trademark of theWikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Contact us Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers

WEBSITES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railway_Catering_and_Tourism_Corporationhttp://www.irctc.com/displayServlethttps://www.irctc.co.in/