The Indian Railways has overhauled its ticket cancellation and boarding norms to combat black marketing and improve passenger convenience.
Under the new rules, a tiered refund system has been introduced, requiring passengers to pay a minimum cancellation charge for confirmed tickets cancelled more than 72 hours before a train's scheduled departure.
Passengers will now pay 25% of the fare for cancellations between 72 hours and 24 hours before departure, 50% for cancellations between 24 hours and 8 hours before, and no refund for cancellations within eight hours of departure.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the changes aim to dismantle the business model of touts who book in bulk and cancel unsold tickets at the last minute.
The revised rules will be implemented in phases between April 1 and April 15 and will address booking patterns in which agents exploit refund windows by strategically cancelling tickets.
Additionally, passengers will be allowed to change their boarding station up to 30 minutes before the scheduled departure, and upgrade their travel class up to 30 minutes before departure for counter tickets.
The railways have also deactivated 30 million suspicious user IDs to curb hoarding and misuse of the booking system.
