SMS rly booking service draws poor response

For availing the service,people have to register their mobile numbers with the IRCTC and their banks,which will provide them with MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) and OTP (one time password) for authorisation of payment. A passenger is required to mention the train number,destination,journey date,class and passenger details such as name,age and gender in the SMS. The sender will receive a transaction ID after which he will have to make payment by sending another SMS by typing PAY followed by the transaction ID,MMID and password. After completing this process,the sender will receive the PNR number of his ticket.

The service,which is available to all mobile subscribers,charges Rs 3 for each SMS and Rs 5 for payment gateway for ticket amounting to Rs 5,000 and Rs 10 for over Rs 5,000. Airtel subscribers can also make the ticket payment using Airtel Money through the USSD service. SMS services are being offered by Bharat BPO,Frequency Weekly and Pyro Group.

A senior IRCTC official said the service did not meet the expectations.

“On June 28,when the service was launched,only 136 tickets were booked. In the first seven days,as many as 760 tickets were booked with an average of 76 tickets a day. Of the 760 tickets,670 were booked using the USSD service provided by Airtel Money,” said the official.

Officials cited lack of awareness among citizen for the poor response . “With increasing awareness,we hope that the number of booking using the service will go up,” added the official.

According to passengers, the service is not as simple as it was made out to be.

“The service was meant to be useful for people who do not have access to internet. However,the system is complex as one has to get the internet banking account and MMID service activated,” said Harsha Shah,president,Railway Pravasi Group.