The rail ministry launched a new debit card service for ticket 
bookings by passengers. The RuPay pre-paid card service has been developed by Indian Railways Tourism and Catering (IRCTC) along with Union Bank of India (UBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
The initiative is a result of IRCTC’s recent announcement to enable passengers to book tickets, shop and pay service bills through debit cards.
Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister, while launching the IRCTC-UBI RuPay pre-paid card, said that the initiative is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial inclusive programme, as it is not mandatory for a passenger to have a bank account in UBI for the card.
AK Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, said the card is a first-of-its-kind in the market as both virtual as well as physical cards are being issued to customers in two variants.
Cards can be made available from UBI offices or through IRCTC online. Initially the service will be available for booking tickets and services such as shopping and bill payments will be added later.
Arun Tiwari, CMD, UBI, informed that the card holder will get free Rs 1 lakh accident insurance coverage as part of the benefits to customers. In order to make the card attractive, reward points will be given on each transaction. One can obtain the card with a loading limit of Rs 10,000 with partial Know Your Customer (KYC) detail or Rs. 50,000 loading limit with full KYC.
Manocha said the first five transactions per card every month done on IRCTC for purchase of train tickets will be free and no transaction charges will be levied to customers for six months only.
For every subsequent transaction post the free usage, customer will be charged Rs 10 per transaction on the IRCTC portal.
It must be mentioned here that RuPay is India’s own card payment gateway network like Visa and Master Card, and provides an alternative system for banks to provide a debit card service.
