NEW DELHI: After Air India, the government now wants the Railways to lower transaction charge for online reservations and is also urging banks to cut charges as it seeks to reduce the usage of cash and promote use of plastic money.

Reducing the use of cash has been identified as a key priority of the government as it seeks to put curbs on black money. Several steps have already been initiated, which were expected to be in place during the coming weeks.

For the second year in a row, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has made it to the prestigious Fortune India Next 500 list of Indian companies, with the Railway Ministry PSU improving its ranking to 199 from 328 in 2015.

The awards, which recognise the outstanding contributions of the companies made during last year, will be presented on Friday (Aug. 19) as a part of Fortune India?s The Next 500 summit at Leela Palace hotel here.

IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) is sending around 3,200 meal packets as a part of the ongoing relief efforts in flood-hit Assam. 2,000 packets of ready-to-eat meals have already been sent by IRCTC and the remaining would be sent in some time. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that Indian railways had been asked to help provide food. “Rail Admn asked to help all in flood affected region. Irctc sending 3200 meal immediately for flood relief in Assam.

IRCTC, railway ticket booking platform, is partnering with internet-led companies such as Paytm, BlaBlaCars and Amazon to expand its footprints beyond railway travel and enter air ticketing, hotel bookings, e-commerce, and ride-sharing business.

A K Manocha, chairman and managing director of IRCTC said he wants IRCTC to become an online travel aggregator offering a host of services.

With a long weekend coming in the first fortnight of August, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has planned a semi-luxury train tour that would take travellers from Delhi to the famous historical and religious places of Rajasthan, including Udaipur, known as the City of Lakes, Ajmer and Pushkar.

The unique circuit planned for the long weekend of August 12-16 also includes visits to Chittorgarh and Mt. Abu in the itinerary, which begins from Delhi Safdarjung station, said a senior IRCTC official.

Railway passengers from next month, booking tickets through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, (IRCTC) website can avail a travel accident cover of Rs. 10 lakh at a premium of one rupee.

IRCTC Chairman-cum-Managing Director A K Manocha said that the insurance cover is besides the compensation given by the railways in case of accidents to valid ticket holders.

Just Dial, UTI Asset Management Company and IRCTC are among the firms that have made it to the Fortune Next 500 list of Indian companies, which has been topped by Dynamatic Technologies.

Companies featuring in the Next 500 list are mostly mid-sized and termed as the 'small wonders' by the magazine.

Indian Railways is set to commission 2,800 kms broad gauge track at the rate of 7.7 km per day, a senior railways official said.

V.K. Gupta, member engineering (ME) of Railway Board said that railways has commissioned around 4,800 km of broad gauge track in the last two years which includes about 1,200 km of new line, 1,900 km of gauge conversion and 1,700 km of doubling.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the rail ministry's e-ticketing arm and the country's largest e-commerce portal, is eyeing total ticket sales worth whopping Rs 27,000 crore in the current financial year ending March 2017, a 20 per cent jump over Rs 22,500 crore worth of tickets sold last fiscal.

A suspected massive data hacking case has sent the Railway Board, which manages Indian Railways, in a tizzy. The Board has formed a high-level six member committee of experts to look into the case where personal data of around 10 million users on the IRCTC website, India’s largest e-commerce portal, is suspected to have been hacked and sold.

Officials suspect the massive data hacking may have involved personal information of users including PAN card numbers, Aadhaar card details, email ids and mobile numbers — immensely valuable set of information for telemarketing companies in the digital age.

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