Citibank cards no more a payment option for IRCTC

CHENNAI: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has decided not to accept Citibank cards for booking e-tickets and i-tickets following a hassle in transfer of funds from the bank.
A senior IRCTC official said: "We have made the Citibank payment gateway offline and have also started sending out mails to those people who have booked their tickets to pay by cheque, demand draft or even in cash."
However, the move has caused confusion among the passengers who did not receive intimation from the corporation for payment of the fare or for cancellation of the tickets.
Amarnath, an employee of an IT company, said: "I had used my Citibank credit card to book tickets for some of my relatives to travel to Tirunelveli. I checked the helpline and they told me that my ticket had not been cancelled and that the passengers could travel on the purchased tickets."
He also said that the IRCTC email had not reached him. "My relatives are travelling with a child. So, I want to make sure that there will not be any hassle for the travel," he added.
Meanwhile, the IRCTC maintained that it had intimated all the passengers about the status of their tickets booked using the Citibank payment gateway. "They can have further details from the helpline number that is available on the website."
The Citibank payment gateway is ranked the third in terms of the number of successful transactions. Last month, about 1.66 lakh transactions worth Rs 17.92 crore were made through Citibank credit or debit cards across the country.