The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. It is the principal entity handling catering services on Indian Railways, the official online railway ticket reservation platform, packaged tourism products, and packaged drinking water for railway passengers under the Rail Neer brand. IRCTC is registered as a public limited company and its shares are listed on Indian stock exchanges.
| Type | Public sector undertaking; listed company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Catering, tourism, online ticketing, packaged drinking water |
| Parent | Ministry of Railways, Government of India |
| Headquarters | New Delhi, India |
| Area served | India (with select international tourism operations) |
| Key products | IRCTC online ticketing portal, Rail Neer, on-board and station catering, tourism packages |
IRCTC was incorporated to professionalise catering and hospitality on Indian Railways and to extend the railway network's reach into tourism and e-commerce. Prior to its formation, catering and onboard services were managed directly by the railway zones. The corporation was set up as a separate entity to bring commercial focus, standardisation, and modern service delivery to these activities.
IRCTC operates the official online passenger reservation portal of Indian Railways, accessible through its website and the IRCTC Rail Connect mobile application. The platform integrates with the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and processes a very large share of all reserved-ticket bookings on the Indian Railways network. It also handles unreserved ticket booking through the UTS-on-Mobile ecosystem in coordination with CRIS.
The corporation manages onboard catering on premium and long-distance trains, base kitchens, food plazas, refreshment rooms, and Jan Ahaar outlets at major stations. Services include meals on Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Tejas, and Vande Bharat trains, as well as e-catering ordered through the Food on Track platform.
Under the Rail Neer brand, IRCTC manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water for sale at railway stations and on trains, operating bottling plants across multiple states in India.
IRCTC's tourism vertical offers rail tour packages, air-inclusive holidays, hotel bookings, and luxury tourist trains. It operates and markets premium services such as the Maharajas' Express and runs themed pilgrimage and heritage circuits including the Bharat Gaurav trains and the Ramayana, Buddhist, and other thematic tour packages. The vertical also manages the operation of select Tejas Express services run by IRCTC as a train operator.
IRCTC has expanded into ancillary financial and digital services, including a co-branded credit card programme with leading Indian banks, the IRCTC iPay payment gateway for ticket transactions, and executive lounges at major railway stations.
IRCTC was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India following its initial public offering in 2019. The Government of India, acting through the Ministry of Railways, remains the majority shareholder, while the remainder is held by institutional and retail investors.
IRCTC is among the most heavily used e-commerce platforms in India by transaction volume, owing to the scale of daily passenger reservations on Indian Railways. Its catering, drinking water, and tourism operations make it a significant influence on passenger experience across one of the world's largest rail networks. The corporation also serves as a vehicle for public policy initiatives in railway tourism, station modernisation hospitality, and digital payments within the rail ecosystem.