The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has recently launched online bus booking services in India. According to a report on ANI, the service went live on the 29th of January. With this service, you can book bus tickets from both state road transport and private bus operators. IRCTC Bus is available in 22 states and three union territories in India.
“In a recent development for providing a more holistic travel experience to the customers, IRCTC that is already in the business of online rail and flight tickets booking launched its online bus booking services that went live for the service of the nation on 29th January 2021,” reads IRCTC’s statement.
How to Book Bus Tickets Online on IRCTC
Now that you know the existence of the service, here’s how you can use it to book bus tickets. Do keep in mind that IRCTC Bus is limited to the web for now. However, a mobile app is in the works and IRCTC hopes to release it in the first week of March.
1. Open IRCTC Bus official website and enter the starting point, destination, and date of your journey. Once you’ve entered these details, click on the ‘Search Bus’ button.
2. On the next page, you’ll get a list of available buses. From the sidebar, you can set the departure and arrival time – before 6 AM, 6 AM to 12 PM, 12 PM to 6 PM, after 6 PM, and bus type – seater, sleeper, AC, non-AC. You can now browse through the available seats and pick one, along with the boarding point and dropping point. Once done, click on ‘Proceed to Book.’
3. If you haven’t logged in to IRCTC yet, the webpage will now urge you to log in. You can use your existing IRCTC account, sign up for a new IRCTC account, or use the guest login facility with an email address and mobile number.
4. When you log in, you’ll see your contact details. You should fill in the missing details if you have a new IRCTC account. After entering the contact details, check the ‘I agree to the Terms & Conditions’ checkbox and click on ‘Continue to Book.’
5. IRCTC Bus will now show the summary of your journey with all necessary details. Verify if you’ve added the right details and click on ‘Proceed for Payment.’
6. The final step is to pay the ticket amount. As you can see below, you can use credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, wallets, international cards, and IRCTC iPay. Pick your preferred payment mode and complete the payment.
So, that’s how you can use IRCTC Bus to book bus tickets. IRCTC says that this service will enable last-mile connectivity to travelers who are already using IRCTC’s train and flight booking services.
