In the month of June 2011, the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) reported around 11.3 Million transactions, up 9.48% month on month from the 10.3 million reported in May. Around 76.93% of total transactions on the service were successful. The IRCTC manages the online rail ticketing for the Indian Railways, and is probably the largest e-commerce player in the Indian market, although, strangely, it faces competition from a parallel ticketing system launched by the Railways at https://www.indianrailways.gov.in. Over the last couple of days, we've noticed that the e-ticketing facility at indianrailways.gov.in has been disabled ( screenshot) Cash Cards: Still Weak Last month, with the disabling of cash card transactions on IRCTC, total cash card transactions had declined by 12.87% to 1,070,349, 10.33% of total transactions. An increase in transactions to 1,113,097 transactions was reported in June, but there was still a declining trend, with cash card transactions now at 9.8% of total transactions. Compare this with August 2010, where 1,825,343 cash card transactions were reported, almost 17% of total transactions at IRCTC. In June, ITZ cash told MediaNama that it had asked franchisees to abide by specific IRCTC rules (details here), and action has been taken against 100-200 franchisees in the last year alone. Last year, the Railways had barred agents from making bookings between 8am to 9am on the IRCTC booking portal, to facilitate other passengers. That said, cash cards continue to enjoy the highest rate of successful transactions, compared with other payment gateways: - Itz Cash Card:…
