PNR is short name for 'Passenger Name Record'. It is a record in the database of Indian Railways computer reservation system (IR-CRS) against which journey details for a passenger, or a group of passengers are saved.
To be specific, when a reserved railway ticket is booked for a train in Indian Railways, all the details of passengers are stored in relational database of centralized reservation system. These details are associated with a unique ten digit number. This reference number is called PNR and it is printed on the ticket.
Passenger's personal information like name, age, gender etc. is saved in the database against this reference number. It includes columns to store booking status and current status of the ticket.
The record pointed by PNR contains comprehensive journey details. The details may include:
- Passenger Details (Name, Age, Sex, Birth Preference)
- Ticket Details (Train No, Date, From, To, Boarding Station, Reservation Upto, Class, Birth, Quota)
- Transaction / Payment Details (Transaction ID, Payment Mode, Ticket Charge)
First 3 Digits:
They tell us from which PRS the ticket has been booked. (PRS: Passenger Reservation System. Developed by CRIS, PRS is a total networking solution to Indian Railways Passenger Reservation System.)
The PNR numbers’ starting digit does not depend on the PRS from which it has been booked. It depends upon: Zone of the Train, w.r.t. starting station of the train.
Ex. If a ticket is booked in Rajdhani Express (Mumbai to New Delhi), as the starting station is Mumbai, PNR will start from 8.
The subsequent 2 digits detail specific PRS in the zone.
Ex. If you book from Dadar PRS center, it can be 57 (For an example only). For Ahmedabad, it may be 24.
To sum up, if the first 3 digits are 824, then it says that the zone is either CR, WCR or WR and the PRS center is Ahmedabad.
Last 7 Digits:
They are randomly generated numbers using the Rand() function. They represent no information about the ticket or journey. This is done to make the PNR number unique.
Where to find PNR number on ticket?
PNR number is generally printed at the top left corner of the printed tickets (tickets that are taken from railway station booking window). In case of the E – Ticket (tickets that are booked online or through IRCTC website), it is mentioned at top in separate cell.
PNR Status Enquiry through Online Websites
This is the most preferred way to enquire your current PNR status as it is easy and reliable. List of some websites that you can use for enquiry:
www.indianrail.gov.in, this is Indian Railways official portal. It is designed and maintained by CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems).