The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, IRCTC, has quietly launched a new all-in-one application for the railway travellers. Notably, this application was developed by the Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).
The application, Swarail, brings together almost all the services of IRCTC in one easy-to-use app, making it a big improvement over the old IRCTC Rail Connect app. It is to be noted that this application is touted as “SuperApp.”
It is to be noted that this application is now available on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, the authorities have mentioned that for now this is a beta version of the application and the people can use it via existing IRCTC Rail Connect accounts or they can also create a new one.
Benefits offered by Swarail -
According to the authorities, Swarail allows you to reserve, unreserve and platform tickets - which will clearly eliminate the waiting in a long queue. A user can reserve or unreserve a ticket simply by tapping on the option shown on the screen.
The person has to enter the destination station with a suitable day and the class we have chosen. When you hit the search button, the app will redirect you to the list of trains - the feature similar to the IRCTC website.
Swarail - a modern Railway application -
Notably, Swarail is known to be a modern interface that makes it easy for the users. Along with this, the application also allows the people to login to Swarail through Face ID or by scanning your fingerprint on the sensor.
Along with this on the home screen, Swarail provides a number of features such as searching trains, PNR status, viewing position of your coach, locating trains in real-time, ordering food, seeking assistance from railway authorities, providing feedback and requesting refunds for tickets.
Large shipment services are another invisible feature. To make it show up, just click on the Menu option from the bottom bar, select "Show/Hide Services" from the right bar and enable the toggle labeled "Large Shipment Services".
Now, go to the home tab and you can find some new things such as Plan Shipment, Track Shipment, Freight Calculator, Freight Terminals and Freight Routes. This might not be available for everyone but is actually very useful if you are someone who frequently has to send luggage somewhere from somewhere.