Book a train ticket offline from IRCTC via SMS
Government of India is increasingly becoming digital day by day and interacting with public by social media as number of Smart phones are increasing, it is getting easier than ever to do things online or via our phones. Government services are now online.
The Indian Railways IRCTC website is service provided by Government for online reservation of railway tickets which sometimes does not work properly because of heavy usage i.e. when server is down. IRCTC have also made an attempt to resolve this issue by making IRCTC mobile app. Now, you can easily book tickets offline via SMS.
How to Book a train ticket offline from IRCTC via SMS?
- The first thing you need is an IRCTC account. Create your IRCTC account. Make sure that the phone number you register with IRCTC matches the phone number that your bank has, otherwise this will not work.
- You also need to check if your bank supports IMPS (Immediate Payment Service). If you have an ICICI Bank account then you don’t need IMPS, and can jump to step 8. You will need IMPS to authorize payments via SMS.
- If your bank supports IMPS (almost all banks do), then you’ll need to call them to generate an MMID or do it on the bank website. This process varies by the bank, so we suggest you check it with your bank.
- Note down the MMID and the one-time password (OTP) sent by the bank.
- Now you’re ready to book your ticket. You need to send a text message to 139. The format of the message should be *BOOK *.
You can book tickets for up to six passengers per ticket by sending text. For example – Type BOOK 12951 BCT NDLS 2201 2A GAURAV 35 M LATA 38 F. - You’ll get an SMS from IRCTC with the transaction ID, fare and availability. To pay, SMS PAY IMPS IRCTCUserID to 139.
- ICICI Bank customers can book tickets without IMPS. They can send an SMS to 139 using this format BOOK ICICI.
- To pay with your ICICI Bank account, SMS *PAY ICICI *.
- Now you’ll get a confirmation message from IRCTC if your ticket is booked. Make sure that this SMS is in your phone when you board the train. You don’t need to print an e-ticket anymore and you can just show this SMS and a photo ID to the TTE to undertake the journey.
For more details visit IRCTC Train booking via SMS
