Refund of Cancelled Tickets

Refund of Cancelled Tickets

2271. SHRI VIJAY KUMAR:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has any alternate plans for the passengers of mail and express trains who have to travel by sitting near the toilet door on waiting ticket, if so, the details thereof;

(b) the reasons for issuing so many waiting list tickets by the Indian Railways, if it does not have the capacity to confirm the same;

(c) whether after the automatic cancellation of an online ticket, often the money for the online waiting ticket is not refunded unless a complaint is registered through the customer care, if so, the reasons therefor;

(d) whether many a times money gets deducted from the account while booking a ticket online but the ticket is not booked and that money is refunded only after a week;

(e) if so, the options available to the passengers if they have limited money and the journey is unavoidable; and

(f) the reasons for discontinuing a special bogie for the Indian Army in the trains?

(a) to (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

 

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2271 BY SHRI VIJAY KUMAR TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 02.08.2023 REGARDING REFUND OF CANCELLED TICKETS.

(a) & (b): On Indian Railways, occupancy pattern of trains is not uniform throughout the year and it varies over lean and peak periods. During peak rush periods, the occupancy of the trains especially on popular routes remains full whereas during lean period and on less popular routes, there is sub optimal utilization. Waiting list tickets are issued to take care of reserved accommodation going vacant against cancellation of confirmed accommodation, avoid chances of passengers being turned away by booking clerks on account of accommodation being exhausted and to help Railways to assess the demand pattern. Waiting list position of the trains running on Indian Railways is monitored on regular basis and to cater to additional demand, load of existing trains are augmented, special trains are run, new trains are introduced, frequency of existing trains is increased etc. subject to operational feasibility.

(c): As soon as the ticket, in which status of all the passengers is on waiting list at the time of preparation of first reservation charts, is automatically cancelled, auto refund is initiated and refund is advised to the bank on the next day.

(d): If money is debited and ticket is not booked, automatic refund process is initiated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on the following day. Refund amount is advised to the Payment Gateway/bank through which booking amount was received. Normally bank takes time to process refund as per the following mode of transaction-

• For Net banking/Wallet/Cash Card transaction 3-4 business days.
• For Credit card/Debit card transaction 6-7 business days.

(e): Passenger can avail Book Now Pay Later option available in Mobile App and EMI option available in the website as payment option.

(f): Instructions already available on this account have been reiterated to all zonal Railways that expeditious clearance of police, paramilitary and armed forces should be ensured by attaching additional coach/coaches to trains and/or by earmarking train service second class coach(es), subject to feasibility, so long as they hold valid travel authority.

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