In an effort to bring transparency in the Ticket booking process through authorized railway agents, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has come out with an OTP-based system that allows passengers to cancel tickets and get refunds using the password given by IRCTC. The statement issued by IRCTC said that this system would only apply to e-tickets booked through its authorized agents.
The statement said, "The OTP-based refund process will ensure greater transparency in the system for the benefit of consumers. This will be a consumer friendly facility, where the passenger can get the correct information of the refund amount received by the agent on his behalf for the canceled ticket or full waiting list ticket. "
Under the new system, whenever a passenger cancels a ticket booked through an authorized IRCTC agent or a full waitlist ticket, an SMS with refund amount and One time password (OTP) will be sent to the passenger's mobile number. The passenger must share this OTP with the agent who booked the ticket to get the refund. An IRCTC official explained in detail about the process that now when the refund will be OTP based, all the passengers have to do is give their own phone number at the time of booking. According to the official, about 27 percent of the tickets are booked daily through authorized agents. 20 percent of these tickets are canceled daily.
