New railway refund rules to be applicable from November 12

To help passengers and plug the misuse of ticketing activity, Indian Railways on Friday amended refund rules under cancellation charges, which shall be applicable from November 12.

The railways said that under the revised rules, an additional facility of using UTS (unreserved ticketing system) counter for gaining refund will be made available to the passengers.

This facility will be provided in the absence of any functioning PRS (passenger reservation system) counter.

"In a major move to help the genuine passengers and to plug the scope of misuse of ticketing activity by unscrupulous elements, the ministry of railways has further amended its refund rules," the railways said in a statement.

"The objective of the new changes in the refund rule are to plug the scope of misuse, facilitate passengers with mobile ticketing and discourage agents on black marketing of tickets."

Under the new revised rules, the railways increased minimum cancellation charge per passenger on confirmed (reserved) tickets 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the train.

The new charges for the first AC or executive class has been increased from Rs.120 to Rs.240, for second AC or first class from Rs.100 to Rs.200 and for the third AC from Rs.90 to Rs.180.