eBiz: IRCTC - e-Ticketing Champ

The picture is just getting bigger and better for the extended arm of Indian
Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation's (IRCTC), Web portal. Since its
launch in August 2002, the portal has come a long way to become Asia's biggest
railway ticket booking portal. It has changed the way of booking railway
tickets. According to the latest figures, the average of 112 tickets booked at
the time of its launch peaked to 25,000 tickets. The offline delivery mix is
about eight lakh. IRCTC has set a target of achieving one lakh average “as
fast as possible”.

Initial start-up concept of I-tickets, printing and delivering the ticket
home, IRCTC last year switched it to e-tickets. In this a traveler could book as
well as print a ticket with the ease of his personal printer.

For the officials from the Ministry of Railways and IRCTC, apprehensions
about the portal's survival, in the wake of the dot.com never arose. This
reason-the portal was launched with a simple business model, weaved around
facilitating convenience for travelers by value addition and reducing rush at
the counters. Making a fast buck was not what the group wanted, a trend during
the dot.com boom period.

Team DQ