Mobile-focused Indian travel search site ixigo.com has added a PNR prediction feature to its "trains and hotels" app.
Users booking waitlisted tickets on certain services will now get "a 95% accurate prediction" about whether the seat will become available.
It addresses what is seen as a pain point for Indian rail travellers. On some services tickets sell out very quickly, and the Indian rail company then allows travellers to join a wait list and get a seat if there are any cancellations.
Ixigo says that it has data-mined two years' worth of data, or ten million PNRs, to come up with the algorithm which works out the probability of successfully getting on the specific train. It also uses machine learning to constantly update its data and keep it accurate.
Rajnish Kumar, co-founder of Ixigo said: "This has been an interesting big data project."
Ixigo has been busy over the past few months. In June it sold a stake to handset manufacturer Micromax and formed a partnership which Ixigo hopes will quadruple the number of mobile users using its apps.
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