New Delhi: In yet another initiative towards 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and 'Digital India', Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal, on Tuesday, launched a Co-branded Contactless Credit Card by State Bank of India (SBI) and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on RuPay platform.
Goyal also set the target of 3 crore users of this credit card by the end of 2021. While addressing the launch event, he said, "SBI Card should reach atleast 3 crore customers till next December, which is also the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee."
The Union Minister also said that he will personally monitor the review report in every 15 days and will have a meeting every month to seek it's progress. "Currently, 30 million tickets have been booked from IRCTC every year. So, 10 percent of that means issuing this credit card to 3 crore people is not a huge goal," he added.
The IRCTC-SBI credit card is one of the 'Make-in-India' initiative undertaken by Railways, claimed to offer a safe transaction environment to the customers as it is equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology whereby the users can expedite their transactions by just tapping at secure reader.
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"This card will bring in paperless ticketing and technology-driven base in Railways. This is going to be a huge step towards our mission to Indian Railways, a green transport service," said Piyush Goyal.
He also informed that the card issuance fee of Rs 500 has been waived off till March 31, 2021 and as soon as the card is activated, 350 bonus reward points will be given to the user.
"In post-COVID world, this card will be essential to increase safety of people. There are provisions to give additional reward points in activities such as dining, movies or other forms of entertainment through this card and 1 reward point is equal to ₹1. The accumulated reward points will enable the people to pay for train tickets fare," Goyal added.
The Cardholders will receive upto 10% value back on 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car bookings made at IRCTC website. It also offers online transaction fee waiver, 1% of fuel surcharge waiver and 4 premium lounge free access at Railway stations in a year.
The IRCTC-SBI RuPay Credit Card also offers several benefits for online shopping portals. Customers can avail discounts while shopping at e-commerce sites.
