Starting today, railway passengers can book their tickets and do shopping using RuPay pre-paid debit cards.
RuPay is India’s own card payment gateway network like Visa and Master Card, and provides an alternative system for banks to provide debit card service.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Railways’ tourism and catering arm, in collaboration with the Union Bank of India is launching for the first time its own RuPay pre-paid card service.
IRCTC will sign the MoU with the Union Bank in the presence of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and senior officials from the railways and UBI tomorrow.
“The card will be launched as IRCTC-UBI RuPay pre-paid card,” a senior Railway Ministry official said, adding, “it is a debit card which can be used for booking tickets, shopping and making service bill payment.”
There will be two type of pre-paid cards – virtual and physical. Card can be made available from either the Union Bank or the IRCTC.
The transaction charge would be Rs 10 per ticket for booking a ticket through the card on the IRCTC portal. As an opening offer, the transaction charge will not be levied six months for purchasing tickets on the IRCTC’s website, the official said.
The initial value of the card is Rs 10,000 which can be recharged.