IRCTC Will Refund e-Ticket Fare Within 5 Days

Very good news for the Indian railway passengers as Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has announced that from now onwards E-ticketing customers will get the refund in their account within four to five days. Passengers need to claim the amount online within 72 hours from the date of cancellation of the train. Previously E-ticket holders had to wait for months to get refund of fare.

 Now through IRCTC’s new system refund payments will be transferred to the customers' account within days of filing the claim online. If the train is cancelled due to disasters like floods, accidents, violation etc. then full refund is allowed.

An official spokesperson of IRCTC said, "Previously, IRCTC customers had to file a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) form online. IRCTC then forwarded the claim to the railway department concerned to process the refund. The refund amount was then credited back to the same account through which payment was made after receiving the same from the concerned railway department. The entire exercise of processing the TDR was time-consuming and the customer could expect the refund at least a month from the date of filing the claim."

Indian Railways to Launch New e-Ticketing Service

Indian Railways has decided to launch an e-ticketing service of its own which bars travel agents from using the service. Individuals alone will be allowed to use the new service.

The current IRCTC e-ticketing service has been so systematically misused by travel agents selling the pre-booked tickets at a premium in turn that travel agents have been barred from booking tatkal tickets through the IRCTC portal during peak hours. The new service is expected to further improve the lot of the general travelling public.

The new e-ticket service will be available through its website www.indianrailways.gov.in. The service will be available between 12.30 AM and 11.30 PM everyday.

Individuals have to register themselves free of charge to avail themselves of the service. To start with, a user will be allowed no more than eight transaction per month. Service charges of Rs 5/- per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 10/- per ticket for all other classes will be levied under the proposed service.

The service is expected to be launched once the necessary clearances for payment gateway transactions are received.

A similar facility for booking tickets through mobile phones is also going to be launched. It would require a software application for mobile phones to be downloaded from the website of Indian Railways.