The railways, which already offers a 0.5 per cent discount on the purchase of monthly travel pass if the payment is made through debit and credit cards, is planning to extend the benefit to unreserved categories too, the Economic Times reported.

In a bid to push digital transactions, the railways has already waived service charge on tickets booked through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website and also offered a 5 per cent discount on payments made online for services like catering and booking retiring rooms.

Last week, the railways said passengers can now book their tickets on an app called BHIM, buoyed by a 12 per cent increase in the number of reserved tickets being booked digitally.

The BHIM mobile app was launched by the government after demonetisation to facilitate instant fund transfers.

Online purchases of reserved railway tickets have surged to 70 per cent from 58 per cent in November 2016. About 30-50 million passengers in the reserved category are reported to have switched over to digital payments.

Railway revenue from reserved tickets is Rs 120 crore a day, of which Rs 25-30 crore is transacted at ticket counters. Of the 1.25 million passengers a day who buy reserved tickets, around 750,000 now book online.

“Around 3-5 crore people in the reserved (ticket) category have migrated towards digital transactions through e-ticketing. At the counters, around 30 per cent passengers buy reserved tickets. We have installed card swiping machines for debit or credit cards”, said Mohd Jamshed, Member-Traffic Railway Board.