Acting on the guidelines of the Railway Ministry, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Development Corporation (IRCTC) has put in place a system on its portal that facilitates automatic refund of confirmed / RAC e-tickets in the event of cancellation of a train, stated a release.
On June 30, the Railway Board had announced this passenger-friendly measure, which makes it identical to the case of waitlisted e-tickets, where it would not be necessary to file TDR (ticket deposit receipt) for refund.
AK Manocha, CMD IRCTC, said the system had become functional from July 12.
“However, for the period July 1-11 (when the backend support was not available), IRCTC decided to file TDR on behalf of all the passengers who could not travel despite confirmed / RAC tickets because of cancellation of their trains. It was purely an administrative measure on our behalf for the benefit of railway passengers,” he pointed out.
During the period (July 1-11), IRCTC made a refund of around Rs 2 crore against about 17,000 PNRs (Passenger name Records) by filing TDRs on the behalf of affected passengers. “IRCTC decided to file TDRs in all such cases during July 1-11 to make the refund a hassle-free procedure for the benefit of the passengers,” he said.
The official, however, clarified that the PRS (passenger reservation system) counter ticket, in the case of cancellation of trains, would continue to be refunded across the reservation counters as per the existing provisions.