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What is the difference between i-ticket and e-ticket in India's online ticket booking?

When we book online train tickets in India through the Government website of www.irctc.co.in, we have a option called: Type: i-ticket or e-ticket, out of which we have to select one.

Ticket Type: i-ticket or e-ticket when booking train tickets online in India

What is the difference between the two?

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  • If you want an easier and cleaner website to book Indian Railways ticket online, then you can try cleartrip and yatra
    – Deepa
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 11:39

2 Answers 2

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The nomenclature is confusing but here's the difference:

  1. iTicket - Fancy name for a paper ticket bought through irctc website. You specify the journey details, passenger information, and pay online. The ticket is sent through courier to the delivery address specified. This is the same as the ticket you get when you buy from a railway booking counter.
    Downside:
    • You cannot cancel this ticket online. You have to queue up at a railway booking counter and produce the ticket and the booking clerk cancels it for you.
    • You have to buy an iTicket at least 3 days before the journey date. This time is required because the ticket is physically delivered to the customer's address.
  2. eTicket - Stands for 'electronic ticket'. It's a paperless, online-only ticket. No need to take a printout of the page before travelling. Just show id proof to TTR The main theme is to save trees so go paperless and you can cancel the ticket online.
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  • 4
    one more thing, if you have waiting list e-ticket, it shall automatically gets cancelled at the time of chart preparation, in case you have an iTicket you need to manually get it cancelled, iTicket is hence used by many booking through IRCTC, if they really had to make their journey in any possible way.
    – mohits00691
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 12:10
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With a quick look I didn't find a good definition in the IRCTC website FAQ, but a web search found this explanation:

  • I-Ticket - Delivered to the customer at his desired address through courier.
  • E-ticket - The user can take a printout of the Electronic Registration Slip (ERS)
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  • If I remember correctly, i-tickets are not available anymore when you book tickets online.
    – rlab
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 12:52
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    i-tickets are available, though you need to make booking at least 3 days in advance. However you almost always want to book e-tickets as i-tickets cannot be canceled online - the only time you may want to go for i-ticket is when you don't have any acceptable form of identity proof.
    – YetAnotherUser
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 14:06
  • This answer by escist has the full scoop. @myselfpoddar, consider switching the accepted answer as that one is much better than mine. :-)
    – Jonik
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 8:02
  • @Jonik that's very kind of you!
    – escist
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 11:22

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