Rail travellers can now book tickets by mVisa payment method which allows them to scan a quick response (QR) code and pay through smartphones.

Users can securely link their visa debit, credit or prepaid account to the mVisa application on their smartphones and make their travel bookings by simply scanning their mVisa QR code on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website.

IRCTC, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, is offering a promotion offer until September 4 that will give Rs. 50 cashback to consumers booking their tickets through mVisa scan and pay on the IRCTC website.

“The key to our success as India’s largest e-commerce organisation has been our ability to embrace new technologies that help us drive consumer engagement across our platform,” IRCTC CMD AK Manocha said on Tuesday.

India is currently one of the major smartphone markets in the world, with over a billion smartphones expected to be sold in the next five years.

“Considering the phenomenal penetration of smartphones in India, moving to a mobile based payment solution such as mVisa was thus a natural choice for IRCTC,” Manocha said.

The increasing popularity and adoption of mobile devices presents a huge opportunity for the growth of mobile-based digital commerce.

The mVisa payment solution on IRCTC can potentially empower millions of consumers spread across Indian cities, towns and villages, to make payments using just their smartphones from the comfort of their homes.