IRCTC, MobiKwik Partner on E-Cash Payments for Tatkal Bookings

In a bid to tackle the tatkal rush, payments app MobilKwik and IRCTC have joined hands to offer an alternative payment solution while booking tickets. Now, apart from paying via netbanking, credit cards, and other wallets, users can now opt to pay directly from their MobilKwik wallet while booking tatkal tickets.

MobilKwik claims that users can pay with the wallet within 2 seconds, whereas other modes of payment take five to ten times more time. This new e-cash payment introduction will eradicate the need to fill in card details, and wait for the bank to approve the transaction through authentication. Instead, IRCTC will instantly deduct the amount from your MobilKwik wallet without any authentication as a prerequisite.

Of course, for this to work, the user must have installed the app and have money in the wallet for seamless and fast payment. For those uninitiated, tatkal is a service provided by the Indian Railway to book emergency confirmed tickets one-day prior to travel. MobilKwik claims that over 15 percent daily ticket bookings for Indian Railways happen under tatkal, and the e-cash payment option helps in giving the user an added leverage to beat the rush.

This facility is available on the IRCTC website, and users can book their tickets using MobilKwik between 8am-12pm IST daily. "MobiKwik collaborated with Indian Railways to digitize payments on the IRCTC app and IRCTC FoodOnTrack app this year, and now we are powering payments for tatkal online, that will help users book tickets almost instantly. We are proud to support the largest rail network in Asia in their endeavor to digitize payments and provide the best payments experience to their users," Upasana Taku, Co-founder at MobiKwik said in a statement.

Last year, IRCTC made MobiKwik wallet as the first payment option on IRCTC's Connect Android App. IRCTC also partnered with Paytm in September this year to allow users to book train tickets through the payment app and website. It had even tied up with Paytm last year to enable e-catering payments.