Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced new rules regarding the cancellation of Indian Railways tickets across the country on Tuesday.
According to a report by the Maharashtra Times, under the new rules, if a ticket is cancelled within eight hours of the train's scheduled departure time, passengers will not receive any refund. Until now, this time window was four hours. The implementation of this new rule will commence between April 1 and April 15.
Changes have also been made to other slabs regarding refunds for cancelled tickets. If a ticket is cancelled between 8 and 24 hours prior to the train's departure, 50 percent of the ticket fare will be deducted; whereas, if cancelled between 24 and 72 hours prior, 25 percent of the amount will be deducted.
If a ticket is cancelled 72 hours prior to the scheduled train departure, a full refund will be issued after deducting a fixed fee per passenger. According to the current policy, if a ticket is cancelled between 4 and 12 hours prior to the train's departure, 50 percent of the fare is deducted; whereas, if cancelled between 48 and 12 hours prior, 25 percent of the amount is deducted.
A full refund of the fare is provided if a ticket is cancelled 48 hours prior to the train's scheduled departure. Railway Minister Vaishnaw clarified that the refund rules were modified to curb the black marketing of railway tickets by touts and to prevent last-minute ticket sales. These new rules are already applicable to the Vande Bharat Sleeper and Amrit Bharat 2 trains that commenced operations after January this year.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on Tuesday that passengers who have purchased tickets at the ticket counter will now be able to upgrade their travel class up to 30 minutes prior to their journey. Previously, passengers had this facility before the preparation of the railway's first reservation chart (at least eight hours in advance), an official stated.
Passengers booking tickets online are not eligible for a class upgrade. The facility to change the boarding point will also be available until 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. Currently, permission to change the boarding point is also granted until the first reservation chart is prepared. These changes in regulations will enable passengers to make last-minute adjustments to their travel plans.
The Railway Minister informed that various changes have been implemented in the Tatkal booking system to prevent touts from hoarding tickets; these measures include the introduction of Aadhaar-based OTPs, restrictions on agents booking tickets during the first 30 minutes, and the deployment of anti-bot solutions to curb fake users.
He further stated that, to date, three crore suspicious user IDs have been deactivated.
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