NEW DELHI: Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for widespread online usage and digitisation in 2014, the Indian Railways (IR) has achieved record e-ticketing revenue through its user-friendly internet ticketing service. From 2014-15 to 2022-23, there has been consistent growth in online ticket bookings, coupled with a notable surge in e-ticketing revenue. In the fiscal year 2022-23 alone, 4,313 lakh e-tickets were booked, compared to 4,174 lakh in the preceding year.
The railway’s revenue trajectory reflects its financial resilience, with earnings rising from Rs 20,621 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 54,313 crore in 2022-23, except for a dip to Rs 17,762 crore in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), authorised to facilitate online ticket booking through internet-enabled applications and websites, has played a pivotal role in this success. Despite a brief disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, the upward trend in internet-based railway ticket bookings persisted. In 2022-23, a total of 7,706 lakh passengers traveled by booking 4,313 lakh e-tickets, marking a significant recovery from the impact of the pandemic in 2020-21 when only 3,053 lakh passengers traveled using 1,740 lakh e-tickets.
The implementation of the Next-Generation E-ticketing (NGet) system has played a crucial role in enhancing efficiency. The NGet system, capable of booking over 26,000 e-tickets per minute, achieved a remarkable feat on November 12, 2022, with a record-breaking 28,434 tickets booked in a minute. This system has significantly contributed to the railway’s success in online ticketing, with revenue reaching Rs 54,313 crore in 2022-23.
Additionally, the railway has extended its online ticketing services to various paramilitary forces, including the launch of an e-ticketing portal for the Indo-Tibet Border Police in February 2023. The IRCTC now serves seven Central Para Military Forces, including NSG, CRPF, NDRF, AR, CISF, BSF, and ITBP. In 2022-23, CRPF led with 6,24,345 e-ticket bookings, followed by BSF with 1,72,631 e-ticket bookings.