TRAVEL AGENCIES have become more of a nuisance these days, posing problems for people who want to book tickets, but without their assistance. Most of the time people are unable to book tickets because they are already blocked by travel agents, who later sell them at high prices. In order to sort this problem, Indian Railways has decided to introduce its own e-ticketing service. The new service will have no place for travel agents.

The service is an answer to IRCTC’s online booking service, which allows all the freedom to travel agents, making it almost impossible for people to book tickets without any assistance. It was because of increasing interference of travel agents that the railways had to prohibit them from making tatkal bookings on IRCTC portal during peak hours.

All one needs to do is get registered on the railways portal www.indianrailways.gov.in. The registration will be free of charge. Initially, an individual will be allowed to make eight transactions per month. The service will be available from 12.30 am to 11.30 pm. Compared to IRCTS, Indian Railways service will be cheaper and will charge Rs five per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 10 per ticket for all other classes, while IRCTS charges Rs 10 per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 20 per ticket for all other classes.