Travel agents to sell rail tickets

Railway travellers can now enjoy the option of booking railway tickets at their neighbourhood travel agent.

The railway ministry had a few weeks back granted permission to the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), the largest travel agents' body, to sell railway tickets for long distance journeys. The ministry is evaluating the possibility of permitting other travel agents associations to sell its tickets as well.

As of now, railway tickets could only be sold by the railways, through their branches and online portal. This usually resulted in long queue involving a lot of time and effort. The ministry's move is aimed at decongesting the process of ticket registration.

"Travel agents are happy about the Centre's approval. Hopefully, by the first week of September, our members should be ready to sell railway tickets," said Ashwini Kakkar, president, TAAI.

According to Kakkar, the former managing director of Thomas Cook India and currently heading Mercury Travels, over 6 billion journeys are recorded every year in India, and the association is targeting to capture 1 per cent of this market in the first year. This works out almost 60 million tickets.

TAAI has been lobbying with the government for quite some time to permit its members to sell railway tickets. More than 1,500 agents are members of the organisation. The association is affiliated to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and currently sells airline tickets worth almost Rs 20,000 crore every year.

In addition, TAAI also has members from airlines, hotels, and government tourism bodies. The body was formed in 1951 to take care of the interests of travel agents, comprising of only twelve members. It focusses on inbound, outbound travel, global and Indian hotel packages.