IRCTC launches 'Book Now-Pay Later' service for tatkal tickets: All you need to know

The Indian Railway has made your ticket booking experience under tatkal quota a lot more easier by launching 'Book Now - Pay Later' service. The IRCTC's new initiative - Book Now, Pay Later- provides passengers the option to pay for tatkal tickets only after the tickets are confirmed.

Indian train travellers often complain that they struggle to book tickets in Tatkal online as the online transactions often don't get through due to IRCTC website's slow speed. Also, due to a cap on daily tickets under Tatkal quota, a single minute delay means no confirmed tickets for the passenger.

The news agency IANS reported that IRCTC processes 130,000 tatkal transactions daily and a majority of these tickets is booked within minutes of the quota opening. After the launch of the new service, passengers for tatkal ticket will be able to pay via cash, debit card or credit card by opting to have tickets delivered at their doorstep.

'Book Now-Pay Later' service is not new to Indian Railways. Till now, it was available only for general reservations. For tatkal bookings, passengers had to pay first via the standard online payment gateways before the IRCTC portal confirmed their tickets.

'Book Now, Pay Later' feature will allow passengers to buy tickets using a loaded e-wallet. Buyers can pay the money in 14 days. To avail the service, customers will have to register with irctc.payondelivery.co.in with basic details such as name, e-mail ID, mobile number, PAN or Aadhaar card. Once the customers get approval to use the feature, they will be provided with one-time passwords to enable them to use the service.

"The pay on delivery feature completely circumvents the use of a payment gateway and will help users make the bookings in just a few seconds greatly increasing their chance of booking a confirmed ticket under the tatkal quota," IANS quoted Anduril Technologies CEO Anurag Bajpai as saying.

Earlier in May, the IRCTC had introduced pay-on-delivery service allowing passengers to book train tickets online and pay at the time of delivery. Delivering tickets at the consumer's doorstep by offering the pay-on-delivery (PoD) option facilitated those consumers who book through travel agents to move to online medium.

Here's all you need to know about Book Now, Pay Later service

• Initially "Pay on Delivery" can be availed up to 5 days prior to the departure of the train.
• The service is available across 600 towns serving more than 4500 pin codes across the country.
• User has to tender PAN / AADHAR at the time of booking.
• The deliveries would be affected within 24-72 hrs.
• The deliveries can only be affected at the address given at the time of booking.
• Bookings can be held only if customer makes the payment within 72 hours of booking. If customer fails to make the payment, the ticket will be cancelled.
• The customer will be liable to pay the cancellation & delivery charges in case of refusal / cancellation before delivery.
• Strict action as per law may be initiated if the customer defaults to pay the booking / cancellation charges and the user id will be will be deactivated.
• The refunds against cancellation would be tendered to users bank account only.