New Delhi, December 30: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been making efforts to provide a wide range of services to all its passenger on Indian Railways. Apart from the facility of online booking of train tickets, IRCTC, the e-ticketing arm of Indian Railways also offers a host of other facilities. With over 8000 railway stations across the nation, the Indian Railways aims to provide improved facilities at the stations including those located in small cities and towns. Indian Railways Heritage Tour on Google Arts And Culture. 

With the passage of time, the IRCTC has revised some of its rules and also have come up with new rules.

  1. Online ticket booking has been made time-bound as a passenger will now get only 25 seconds to fill up passenger details. Moreover, the minimum time to enter the Captcha code on passenger details page and payment page is 5 seconds.

  2. With the new rule in place, a passenger can book online tickets 120 days in advance, excluding the date of the journey while 6 tickets can be booked monthly from one user’s ID. A user whose Aadhaar is verified can book 12 tickets in a month. A maximum of two tickets can be booked from one ID during 8-10 am on a day.

  3. Passengers should know that tatkal tickets can be booked a day before travel, starting 10 am for AC coaches and 11 am for sleeper class.

  4. The IRCTC allows travel agents to book tickets between 8 am, 8.30 am, 10 am, 10.30 am, 11 am and 11.30 am. The agents are given slots so that other passengers can book their tickets smoothly without any hassle.

  5. With the new rules, a user will have to verify with a one-time password (OTP) for payment through net-banking.

  6. Passengers can now claim refunds for reasons like- if the train doesn’t depart within three hours of the scheduled departure, if the train’s route has been diverted, if a passenger has been shifted to a lower class than what was chosen at the time of booking the ticket.

  7. For waitlisted tickets, the passengers whose name appears in the list and the status is fully confirmed / fully RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) after chart preparation can undertake their journey.

  8. Waitlisted passengers should know that the cancellation of e-tickets by the customer/agent through IRCTC's website is permitted only before the chart of the train is prepared. The refund is credited to customer's account electronically by IRCTC.

  9. Passengers must know that if a confirmed ticket is cancelled more than 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, the Railways charges Rs. 240 for AC first class/executive class, Rs. 200 for AC 2 tier/first class, Rs. 180 for AC 3 tier/AC chair car/ AC 3 economy, Rs. 120 for sleeper class and Rs. 60 for the second class.

  10. In case of a confirmed online ticket, the Indian Railways doesn’t give a refund to any passenger after the chart of the train is prepared. A passenger does not need to furnish any identity proof while Tatkal booking but will have to show any identity proof in original during the time of journey.

In May this year, IRCTC had partnered with ixigo, a leading travel marketplace to exclusively power hotel bookings for users of Indian Railways and enhancing service offerings to its customers. With the new partnership, IRCTC passengers can enjoy ixigo's wide range of accommodation offerings -- from its domestic, international hotel partners and OTAs (online travel agencies).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 30, 2018 03:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).