NEW DELHI, May 14: The Railways has made it mandatory for its passengers to give their destination addresses for contact-tracing, if needed, while indicating that only special trains will run till June 30, but full refund will be given for cancelled regular trains.
All passengers travelling in the Rajdhani-like special trains, that started operating from May 12, will now have to give the Railways their contact address in the city they are travelling to, the national transporter said on Thursday.
A provision has already been made on the IRCTC website to do so from May 13.
A Railways spokesperson said that this is being done for contact-tracing which will be required if somebody tests positive for the novel coronavirus after travel.
“With effect from May 13, IRCTC taking destination address of all passengers booking tickets. This will help in contact-tracing, if required later,” Railway spokesperson RD Bajpai said, adding it would be a permanent feature during the near future.
Earlier, in at least 12 cases, passengers travelling in trains were found to be COVID-19 positive.
In a separate advisory, the Railways said that all tickets booked before and during the lockdown period for travel till June 30 will be automatically cancelled, indicating that normal passenger services are unlikely to resume by that date.
However, Shramik Specials introduced from May 1 and special train services that started on May 12 will continue.
While earlier, the regular train passenger services were cancelled until “further advice”, the Railways’ Thursday order indicated that there would be no resumption of these services at least till the end of June.
“Regular passenger service including Mail/Express, Passenger and Suburban services have been cancelled until further advice,” said the Thursday order.
“The competent authority has desired that all the tickets booked for the above trains for the period upto 30th June 2020 may be cancelled and full refund generated as per provisions,” it said.
The tickets to be cancelled were booked before and during the lockdown period, till April 14, when the Railways was still allowing bookings for journeys in June, an IRCTC official told PTI.
While all e-tickets will be refunded automatically, the Railways said, those bought at the counter for journeys post March 21 can be cancelled and refunds taken upon submission of the ticket up to six months from the date of journey.
“Passenger can file TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) within six months from date of journey instead of 3 days at the station and submit the detailed TDR within next 60 days (instead of 10 days) to Chief Claims Officer/CCM Refund office for getting the refund amount, subject to verification,” the order stated.
It also said while online cancellation and refund facility is available for e-tickets, passengers can also cancel PRS counter ticket through 139 or through the IRCTC website and get refund across the counter within six months from journey, instead of up to the scheduled departure of the train.
Regular mail, express, passenger and suburban services of the railways have been suspended since March 25 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.
Over two lakh passengers have booked tickets worth Rs 45.30 crore for travel special trains over the next seven days, the railways said on Thursday. (PTI)
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