ICICI Bank introduces SMS-based rail ticket booking for customers

August 13, 2013

Mumbai: ICICI Bank Limited, India’s largest private sector bank, today announced a SMSbased service to enable its customers to book rail tickets from IRCTC in association with Bharat BPO Services Limited, a part of the SPICE DIGITAL group. 
 
ICICI Bank customers will now be able to book rail tickets simply by sending two SMSes to 139. The cost of the ticket will directly be debited from the customer’s savings account.
 
Commenting on the service, Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank Limited, said: "ICICI Bank has been leveraging technology to provide convenient and easily accessible banking services across the country. This service is a welcome addition to our wide array of mobile-based services. It provides a convenient way to book rail tickets without using internet. We are happy to have partnered with Bharat BPO for this service."
 
Jatinder Verma, CEO, Bharat BPO Services Ltd. said: "This innovative service will make rail ticket booking easy for customers as they can book tickets from anywhere. This is the real edge of mobility that will touch new dimensions in mobile usage."
 
Following is the method to book rail tickets using this SMS service:

• STEP 1: Send an SMS to 139 from your registered mobile number (registered with ICICI Bank and IRCTC)
  

  The SMS Format is: BOOK (TrainNo) (FromCity) (ToCity) (TravelDate(DDMM)) (Class) (Passenger1- Name) (Age) (Gender Passenger2-Name) (Age) (upto 6 passengers) ICICI

  You will receive a message with the following details:

  • Transaction ID
  • Ticket Amount
  • IRCTC Service Charge (IRCTC SC)
  • Total Amount
  • Seat Availability

For example:
Trans Id: 2501368 Ticket Amount: 85.0 IRCTC SC: 11.24 Total Amount: 96.24 Seat: AVAILABLE- 0653 For Payment SMS PAY 2501368 ICICI Last six digits of your ICICI Account number IRCTC UserID to 139. Note that your mobile number must be registered with ICICI and IRCTC.

• STEP 2:
  On receipt of the above details, send an SMS to 139 for the payment of the ticket.

PAY (Transaction ID as received) (ICICI) (last 6 digits of your ICICI Bank account number) (IRCTC UserID)

For example: PAY 2501368 ICICI 123456 RakeshKumar

You will receive the final confirmation message:

 
About Bharat BPO: Bharat BPO is the exclusive partner of IRCTC, an arm of Indian Railways, for providing Integrated Train Enquiry Service (ITES) in India. BBPO is serving the nation for past six years and have catered to over 135 crore enquiries over various mobile technologies. The customer is addressed on a wide range of offerings including Ticket Booking, PNR Status, Train Status, Seat Availability, Fare Enquiry, Train Schedule etc. All these enquiries are attended 24x7 through a single helpline number 139 across the country over IVR, SMS and USSD.

Ticket booked successfully.
PNR: 8502618225
Ticket No: 0728109603
Booking Status: Rakesh CONFIRM D2 0084 WS
Class: 2S
Ticket Amt: 85.0
SC: 11.24 Src Stn: KALYAN JN Dst: PUNE JN DOJ: 30/08/2013 Shd Dep: 06:37

About ICICI Bank: ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, with consolidated total assets of US $ 124 billion at December 31, 2013. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies and among its largest securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 19 countries, including India.

About Bharat BPO: Bharat BPO is the exclusive partner of IRCTC, an arm of Indian Railways, for providing Integrated Train Enquiry Service (ITES) in India. BBPO is serving the nation for past six years and have catered to over 135 crore enquiries over various mobile technologies. The customer is addressed on a wide range of offerings including Ticket Booking, PNR Status, Train Status, Seat Availability, Fare Enquiry, Train Schedule etc. All these enquiries are attended 24x7 through a single helpline number 139 across the country over IVR, SMS and USSD.

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release, which contain words or phrases such as 'will', 'would', etc., and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute 'forward-looking statements'. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to our ability to obtain statutory and regulatory approvals and to successfully implement our strategy, future levels of non-performing loans, our growth and expansion in business, the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses, technological implementation and changes, the actual growth in demand for banking products and services, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports filed by us with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. ICICI Bank undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.

For Press Queries please contact:

Mr. Sujit Ganguli
Head, Brand and Corporate Communications
ICICI Bank Limited
Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai – 400051
E-mail: ganguli.sujit@icicibank.com