The government-owned portal posted a 19 per cent increase in income at Rs 1,141 crore, which mainly includes service charges on tickets, sales of Rail Neer water, onboard catering services and licence fees from outsourced catering vendors.

This is similar to online marketplaces where sales don't include actual goods sold but instead count commission from sellers and revenue from advertisements on their ecommerce sites. IRCTC's combined income from commissions on ticketing, travel and tourism was Rs 670 crore, a tad higher than Flipkart's turnover of Rs 659 crore earned from shipping fee and selling commission on its ecommerce portal.

By having a monopolistic position, higher web traffic and sales, IRCTC can attract several brands on its portal, feel experts. "A large part of the Indian population trusts IRCTC and brands across consumer, food and tourism can use it to advertise or sell their products on the portal," said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at retail consultancy Third Eyesight.

Since IRCTC doesn't compete with any of the online marketplaces in India, Amazon has partnered the rail portal for two years with an annual guarantee of Rs 18 crore a year. India's ecommerce market is expected to breach the $100-billion mark by FY20, triggered by increasing internet usage, discounting and investment by online retailers, according to Goldman Sachs that has revised its previous estimate. The majority of an upward revision of 27 per cent is contributed by the e-tail segment, which is estimated to reach $69 billion by FY20.