Book Train Tickets By SMS : No Need of Internet!

IRCTC has launched SMS based railway ticket booking. The process needs no internet connection and the  main charge for the service is the cost of the SMS service, ie Rs.6. As per the requirement, one has to register the mobile number with IRCTC as well as one’s bank. Steps for SMS based train ticket booking can be summarized as below.

How To Book Train Tickets By SMS ?

Step 1: Get MMid and OTP: Register your mobile number with your bank to open a mobile money account. The bank will provide a mobile money Identifier (MMId) and one-time password (OTP) for authorization of payment.

  • MMID generation is a single click process available with more than 26 Indian Banks covering over 90% of the total banking subscriber base. The banks for the same are listed at http://www.npci.org.in/bankmember.aspx
  • “OTP” is a One Time Password generated and provided by your respective bank.

Step 2 : Send SMS to 139 or 5676714: Send an SMS to 139 or 5676714 with all your travel details like train number, date of journey, boarding station and destination and Class of travel, besides name, age and gender of the passenger.

A sample SMS format for normal ticket booking is as given below: Send booking SMS to 5676714 as:

Format:  BOOK FrmStnCode,ToStnCode,DDMMYY,TrnNo,Class,

PsngrName1,Age1,M/F,PsngrName2,Age2,M/F,PsngrName3,Age3,M/F,PsngrName4,Age4,M/F

Example : BOOK NDLS,ALD,280313,12418,SL,varun,23,m,ezaz,23,m,priyanka,24,f,sukhbir,25,m

Step 3: Wait for the SMS from IRCTC : On receiving your SMS, the IRCTC will send a transaction ID.

Step 4 : Send the second SMS to IRCTC : The passenger has to reply to the SMS with PAY followed by the transaction ID and the bank password (OTP).

Format: PAY TransactionID,<IMPS> or <MPAY>

Example : PAY 92224487261426141055,MPAY

Step 5 : Wait for the confirmation SMS from IRCTC : On successful booking of ticket, a message will be sent to the user by IRCTC which will be sufficient as the valid travel document along with photo ID card in original.

What should you note before attempting SMS booking by IRCTC?

  1. The SMS scheme will not be available during 8 am-12 pm for booking ARP/tatkal/general tickets.
  2. Rs. 3 will be charged per SMS sent and payment gateway charges would be Rs. 5 for ticket amount up to Rs. 5,000 and Rs.10 for tickets which would amount to more than Rs. 5,000.
  3. There will be no need for internet at any stage – booking, payment, cancellation etc.
  4. Important links for more information related to SMS booking are SMS USSD by IRCTC, mobkit and railway SMS.
  5. You can SMS HELP TRN to 54959 and get the list of services and their commands.
Disclaimer : The details provided in the article are collected from various sources including IRCTC website. The article is purely for public awareness of a new facility started by IRCTC, and neither the author nor this website has any connection with the process or the agencies involved and hence claims no responsibility over the process.