IRCTC Launches Ticket Booking App for BlackBerry 10

With an eye on the growing usage of mobile applications, IRCTC on Thursday has launched a new application to book tickets for BlackBerry 10 smartphone users.

"The official IRCTC App can now be downloaded from BlackBerry World on BlackBerry 10 smartphones and book train tickets using the app," said a senior IRCTC official.

The IRCTC app is listed on BlackBerry World under the Navigation & Travel section, and is a 5MB download. As per the app listing, the IRCTC app for BB10 allows users to book railway tickets, apart from checking reservation status, train schedules, train routes, availability of tickets, cancellation, booking history, recent history, favourites, and more.

The IRCTC official said the BB10 app is user friendly and easy to operate, and that users can plan a journey with a tap of a finger.

Annie Mathew, Director, Business Development and Alliance, BlackBerry India, said about the launch of the app, "We are excited to bring the IRCTC application to BlackBerry World. With the increasing smartphone perpetration and the increasing dependence on mobile applications, it is a great opportunity for us to help our customers experience this app for an easy and streamlined train booking service."

The number of tickets booked through e-ticketing system on IRCTC website has gone up many times since capacity enhancement of the portal recently. It cost about Rs 100 crore to the Railway PSU for strengthening the ticketing site.

On an average 7,000 tickets are booked on the website per minute and about 5 lakh tickets are booked daily.

CRIS, the technical arm of railways, was involved in the upgrading of the IRCTC website.

There are about 31 crore reserve tickets being booked in a year out of which 55 percent tickets are sold through windows. While 37 percent tickets are booked online, eight percent are being booked by ticketing agents.