Cleartrip enters train ticketing through IRCTC; targets single-digit market share this year

Online travel platform Cleartrip, a Flipkart company, on Monday entered the train ticket booking segment through a partnership with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation IRCTC, aiming to capture a single-digit market share by the end of this financial year.

Online travel platform Cleartrip, a Flipkart company, on Monday entered the train ticket booking segment through a partnership with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), aiming to capture a single-digit market share by the end of this financial year. With this launch, travellers can access train ticket bookings across routes in India, including General and Tatkal quotas as prescribed by the Ministry of Railways guidelines, alongside essential services such as real-time seat availability, fare insights, PNR status tracking, berth preferences, and secure digital payments, all in a single, intuitive interface. ''With over 800 million reserved passengers travelling by train every year, the opportunity isn't just about scale, it's about delivering a differentiated experience,'' Gaurav Patwari, Chief Business Officer, Air, Cleartrip, told PTI. ''Since railway is launching now, we are looking to have about a mid-to-high single-digit market share within the OTS wave on trains by the end of the year. Thereafter, it will be a very, very exponential growth journey when it comes to trains for the next few years,'' he added. India's rail network is one of the world's most complex mobility systems, serving 23 million passengers daily and 7 billion annually, making it one of the world's largest transportation systems. ''Train travel is a critical part of India's mobility ecosystem, and this launch marks an important step toward realising our vision of becoming a unified, multi-modal travel platform. This will help us accelerate faster and put us in a more competitive position. We expect to capture a single-digit market share, with train bookings contributing around 5-10 per cent to our overall business by the end of the year,'' Manjari Singhal, Chief Growth and Business Officer, Cleartrip, added.