Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is well-known for changing the face of the railway ticketing in India. It has laid the groundwork for internet-based railway ticket booking through its website. This year IRCTC has been an exceptionally active player in the travel industry.

(Image: Electric locomotive of Indian Railways by Shan H Fernandes)

Over the past few months, IRCTC has tied up with innumerable indian and international brands to further enhance its business and fulfil the requirements of the travellers. Let us go through a few of them below:

 YatraGenie

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation collaborated with YatraGenie – a Bengaluru-based online bus ticketing and cab-booking platform. Through this tie-up, YatraGenie offers cab services to the passengers from Secundarabad station. This gives the liberty to the passengers to book cabs at the last minute from the station and reach their respective destinations with absolute ease.

 MobiKwik and Paytm

MobiKwik offers an instant one-tap payment method for ticket bookings. The users can carry out seamless online payments from the retailer’s platform with no redirection to the app. It has tied up with Paytm to make e-catering payment an easy option for the travellers.

Amazon and Mydala

IRCTC tied up with Amazon to provide the convenient online shopping experience to its customers. Through the app, the passengers are offered a variety of products ranging from consumer electronics to musical instruments. In the similar category, they joined hands with Mydala to provide deals and offers across categories like health and wellness, tattoos and retail shopping to its customers.

 KFC and Dominos

Recently, IRCTC has also associated with leading fast-food chains like KFC and Dominos. Currently, IRCTC provides an e-catering facility in 1516 trains without pantry cars.The KFC and Dominos services are available in trains running via New Delhi Railway Station. Passengers can place their orders through the IRCTC website or call on a toll-free number.  It is also planning to collaborate with food aggregators like Subway and Pizza Hut.

Foodpanda and Hello Curry

IRCTC has connected with many food tech startups in the past few months. A few of them include Foodpanda and Hello Curry. With these tie-ups, the two food tech startups have enabled the passengers to order from a variety of cuisine options during their travel. Foodpanda provides customers with the choice to order meals a few hours before their travel. The Foodpanda services are available currently only in Delhi whereas Hello Curry offers wholesome healthy meal options to passengers boarding different trains at Secunderbad station.

GoAir and Spicejet

IRCTC associated with the GoAir and Spicejet to assist train travellers with wait-listed tickets to book flight tickets by charging an incremental fee. The passengers get an opportunity to avail  tickets at a lower price as compared to standard price rates. Interested people can book flight tickets three days prior to their travel date, after cancelling their train tickets.

In this year, IRCTC has been seen joining hands with many players in different verticals to assist the travellers through its widely-available services.

Related Article: Foodpanda partners with IRCTC to offer food in trains

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YatraGenie, a bus ticketing and cab-booking company, has recently introduced YatraGenie Autos – an online demand auto-rickshaw service that can be booked through its mobile app.

(Image: Auto Rickshaw Taxis by Andrew Bone/CC BY 2.0)

This new auto- service can prove really cost-effective for the travellers as it will allow them to book an auto-rickshaw ride as low as Rs. 20 available across all district headquarters in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

As mentioned before, YatraGenie Autos can be booked through the YatraGenie mobile app only. The travellers won’t have to bother about paying cash as the app features an online wallet that can be recharged through a credit/debit card or online banking. The first-time users of auto-rickshaw rides will be offered Rs. 100 cashback on mobile app download and referrals.

Renil Komitla, the founder and CEO of YatraGenie services, quoted on this business development:

“The addition of YatraGenie auto is yet another step towards providing a complete travel solution to our customers by offering all modes of local commute. This service is currently available in 60 cities. By March 2016, we will be rolling it out across all cities in South India.”

YatraGenie Autos comes as an another option for budget travellers. This service will cater to the travellers who want to avoid buses and other means of public transport but at the same time travel at a cheap rate.

YatraGenie, launched by Renil Komitla in 2013, is gradually gaining a strong foothold in the travel industry with over 3 lakh successful cab bookings and 2.5 lakh mobile app downloads. By the end of 2015, YatraGenie aims to expand in 100 cities. It has already received a sum of $5 million and $25 million in two rounds of funding for its expansion plan. The company expects to operationally break even by March 2017 and become a profitable business later.

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