Train Ticket Booking Archives - CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS

Condition of Carrying Identity Card Extended to All Classes of Reserved Train Tickets Including Reserved Second Class and Sleeper Class

admin — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 07:44:01 +0000

Condition of Carrying Identity Card Extended to All Classes of Reserved Train Tickets Including Reserved Second Class and Sleeper Class

Ministry of Railways

Condition of Carrying Identity Card Extended to All Classes of Reserved Train Tickets Including Reserved Second Class and Sleeper Class

The New Provision will Come into Effect from – Tomorrow (1st December 2012)

The Move Aims to Facilitate the Travel of Bonafide and Legitimate Passengers and to Reduce the Scope for Misuse of Reserved Ticketing System by Unscrupulous Elements/Middleman

The List of Prescribed Proofs of Identity has been Expanded to Cover More Variety of Photo Identity Cards for the Convenience of the Passengers

In a major initiative to further facilitate the travel of bonafide and legitimate passengers and to reduce the scope for misuse of reserved ticketing system by unscrupulous elements/middlemen, the Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the condition of carrying original proof of identity during train travel on reserved tickets issued through Passenger Reservation System (PRS) for all reserved classes including ‘Reserved Second Class (2S)’, ‘Sleeper Class (SL)’, ‘III Economy Class (3E)’ and ‘First Class (FC)’. This change in policy will come into effect from tomorrow i.e. 1st December 2012.

Further, the Ministry of Railways has also decided to expand the list of prescribed proofs of identity to include photo identity cards having serial numbers issued by public sector undertakings of State/Central Government, District Administrations, Municipal Administrations and Panchayat Administrations.

The expanded list of the prescribed proofs of identity for undertaking journey on Tatkal ticket and other reserved classes will now be as follows:

1. Voter Photo identity card issued by Election Commission of India.

2. Passport.

3. PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department.

4. Driving Licence issued by RTO.

5. Photo identity card having serial number issued by Central/State Government which include the following:

(i) Pension Pay Order s(PPO)

(ii) Ration Card with photographs

(iii) Senior Citizen cards

(iv) Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards

(v) ESI cards (with photograph) issued for taking treatment in ESI dispensaries.

(vi) CGHS Cards (with photograph) issued to individual family members of Central Govt. employees.

6. Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized School/College for their students.

7. Nationalized Bank Passbook with photographs.

8. Credit Cards issued by Banks with laminated photograph.

9. Unique Identification Card “Aadhaar”.

10. Photo identity cards having serial number issued by Public Sector Undertakings of State/Central Government, District Administrations, Municipal bodies and Panchayat Administrations.

In this way, the new provision to be effective from tomorrow i.e. 1st December, 2012 will be as follows :-

“Any one of the passengers booked on a PNR for undertaking journey in any reserved class on Indian Railways has to produce any one of the above mentioned prescribed proofs of identity in original during the journey failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly. The existing provision of the Tatkal scheme where the passenger is required to show the same original proof of identity as indicated on the ticket shall continue.”

It may be mentioned that presently only the following categories of passengers travelling in reserved classes have to produce original proof of identity during the journey:-

· Passengers travelling on e-tickets.

· Passengers travelling on Tatkal tickets.

· Passengers undertaking journey in AC classes on the tickets issued through the computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) {except in III Economy -3E class}.

With the new provision, coming into effect from tomorrow i.e. 1st December 2012 the condition of carrying one of the prescribed identity cards in original has now been extended additionally to other classes of travel namely – Reserved Second Class (2S), Sleeper Class(SL), III Economy Class(3E) and First Class(FC) also.

The above change in the policy is aimed at facilitating the travel of bonafide and genuine passengers and simultaneously to check the scope for travel on transferred tickets. It is also considered that the proposed change shall also be useful from the security point of view.

PIB

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Service Tax on Railway Passengers Travelling in AC Class/First Class

admin — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:03:30 +0000

Levy of Service Tax on Railway Passengers Travelling in AC Class/First Class from 1st October 2012

In compliance of the provisions contained in Finance Bill 2012 and subsequent notifications issued by Ministry of Finance, the Service Tax in case of railway travel, which was exempted upto 30th September 2012, will be levied on the fare of passenger services in the following classes from 1st October 2012.

(i) AC First Class,

(ii) Executive Class,

(iii) AC-2 tier Class,

(iv) AC-3 tier class,

(v) AC Chair Car class,

(vi) AC Economy class and

(vii) First Class.

Since an abatement of 70% has been permitted on passenger services by Ministry of Finance, the Service Tax will be charged on 30% of total fare including reservation charge, development charge, superfast surcharge which would be calculated as follows:-

i) Service Tax of 12% will be charged on 30% of fare (equivalent to 3.6% on the total fare)

ii) Education Cess of 2% on Service Tax will be added (equivalent to 0.072% on total fare) and

iii) Higher Education Cess of 1% on Service Tax will also be added (equivalent to 0.036% on total fare)

iv) Total Service Tax implication will be (i) + (ii) + (iii) = 3.708% on the total fare.

On Concessional value tickets/PTO tickets etc. service charge will be levied on 30% of the total fare actually being paid by the passengers.

The Service Tax will also apply to tickets issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after date of implementation of Service tax. In the case of tickets already issued excluding service tax, the service tax on total fare including development charge, superfast surcharge, reservation fee, etc. date of implementation of Service Tax will be recovered either by TTEs in the train or by the Booking Offices before commencement of the journey by the passengers. Commercial Inspectors and TIAs have been instructed to visit all important stations and ensure that service tax is levied on tickets issued as per the revised rates. Commercial Officers have also been asked to make surprise checks at the stations and ensure that Service Charges are levied from date of implementation of Service Tax.

The amount of Service Tax collected from passengers will be deposited with the Ministry of Finance as per procedure. Finance Departments of Zonal Railways have been instructed for proper accountal and remittance of Service Tax amount to the Government.

In case of refund of passenger fare, if any, refund of Service Tax shall be claimed by the passenger from the concerned Service Tax authority. No refund shall be made by the Railways on this account. For the purpose of claiming refund, Chief Commercial Manager (CCM) office of concerned Zonal Railway shall issue a certificate to passenger detailing the amount of refunds to be signed by an Officer authorized by CCM, which shall be countersigned by the Dy. Chief Account Officer (DCAO) or officer authorized by them for this purpose.

PIB

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IRCTC E-Ticket Booking : Rolling Deposit Scheme (RDA) for quick booking through internet

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 02:59:24 +0000

IRCTC E-Ticket Booking : Rolling Deposit Scheme (RDA) for quick booking through internet

One more good move by IRCTC

Reliable sources said that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporatin Limited (IRCTC) is decided to lanuch a new deposit scheme for passengers to book e-tickets faster through internet.

Making to easier to book e-tickets in IRCTC website with the help of advance money deposit kept in their individual account, no need to go to bank portal for payment. Passengers can deposit money in advance with IRCTC in their individual account. Selection of payment option will be available one more as this individual account. So, the There is lot of time to take for the payment through gateway method of all banks. Certainly this is the fantastic opportunity to book e-tickets through internt for Indian passengers.

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REVISION OF TATKAL SCHEME

admin — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 08:52:09 +0000

REVISION OF TATKAL SCHEME

The below information stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways Shri.K.H.Muniyappa in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.

The salient features of modified Tatkal Scheme which was introduced in August 2004 and revised from time to time are attached in Appendix.

With a view to streamline booking of reserved tickets, the following steps have been taken:-

i. The timings of opening of reservation of Tatkal tickets have been changed to 10.00 hours on the previous day of journey instead of 08.00 hours as per earlier provisions.

ii. Preventive checks are conducted in association with Commercial Vigilance and Security Department in and around reservation offices as well as in trains against persons on travelling on transferred tickets.

iii. Monitoring and surveillance of the working of reservation offices is undertaken by installing Close Circuit Televisions to curb the possible activities of touts.

iv. Travelling Public are also educated about the consequences of buying tickets from touts through various media.

v. Railway staff, if found indulging in malpractices in connivance with touts, are taken up under the Discipline and Appeal Rules.

In order to make the catering service more effective, adequate steps have been initiated in the New Catering Policy, 2010 issued on 21st July, 2010. This policy has an inclusive approach wherein from the least advantaged passenger to the relatively affluent are provided catering services in a socially responsible manner with emphasis on provision of good quality and hygienic food at economic price. Jan-Ahar outlets have been set up for sale of Janta Meals and low cost affordable regional cuisines. Supervision and monitoring has been strengthened through an institutional mechanism put in place by the Zonal Railways by deploying Railway personnel, who check quality and hygiene and take corrective action in a time bound manner through regular, surprise and periodical inspections. Standard Bid Documents for award of catering contracts have been prepared by the Ministry by engaging professional agencies having domain knowledge and expertise wherein stringent eligibility criteria to ensure quality with detailed penalty clauses have been defined. The policy guidelines for Train Side Vending contracts have been issued for catering services in trains run without pantry car. Fixation of licence fee has been rationalized. Detailed instructions regarding waste management have been issued in order to maintain hygiene and cleanliness at all catering units.

1) Tatkal booking opens at 10 AM on the previous day of journey excluding date of journey from the train originating station.

2) The reservation under this scheme is available only up to the time of preparation of charts.

3) The facility of change of name is not permitted on the bookings made under Tatkal scheme.

4) No duplicate Tatkal tickets are issued except in exceptional cases on payment of full fare including Tatkal charges.

5) The reservation under this scheme can be sought by full fare paying passengers only and no passenger holding concessional ticket is allowed to avail reservation under this scheme.

6) Tatkal tickets are issued only on production of self-attested photocopy of one of the nine prescribed proofs of identity mentioned in the scheme and passenger should carry the same proof of identity(in original) during the journey failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket are considered as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly.

7) No refund is granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets except under certain circumstances like non-attachment of coach, cancellation of train, as mentioned in the scheme.

8) Tatkal charges have been fixed as a percentage of fare at the rate of 10% of basic fare for second class and 30% of basic fare for all other classes subject to minimum and maximum prescribed limits as given in the scheme.

9) Tatkal tickets are issued for actual distance of travel, subject to the distance restriction applicable to the train.

10) Agents / RTSAs have been restricted from the booking Tatkal tickets at the counters as well as through internet between 1000 hours and 1200 hours.

11) It is possible to book a maximum of only four passengers per PNR for Tatkal tickets.

12) The web services agents of IRCTC have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day on the internet.

13) Powers for earmarking of Tatkal accommodation in different classes have been delegated to Zonal Railways who take a decision in this regard keeping in view the utilization pattern in that class during the previous financial year as well as availability of accommodation subject to maximum permissible limit prescribed in the scheme.

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Railway authorities allow change in the name of passenger holding confirmed reservation

admin — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:27:33 +0000

Railway authorities allow change in the name of passenger holding confirmed reservation

The below information was given by the Minister of State for Railways, Shri Bharatsinh Solanki in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 17.8.2012 regarding the subject of change in the name of passengers in reservation tickets…

Railway authorities allow change in the name of passenger holding confirmed reservation

Passengers (Change of Names) Rules, 1990 restrict the facility of change of name by any passenger having a berth/seat reserved in his/her name to five conditions i.e. Government servant proceeding on duty, family member, students of a recognized Government institution, cadet of National Cadet Corps(NCC) & marriage party.

With a view to prevent the misuse of this facility, detailed procedure has been advised to all Zonal Railways which, inter- alia, stipulates for granting of this permission generally by a gazetted officer on production of the specified supporting documents, maintaining of record of such permission and inspection of this record periodically.

Change of name facility is not permitted on Tatkal scheme.

No complaint regarding misuse of this facility has been reported in 2012-13.

There is no proposal at present to review this scheme.

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Central Government : Railways Takes Steps to Combat Misuse of Tatkal Tickets

admin — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 05:26:56 +0000

Railways Takes Steps to Combat Misuse of Tatkal Tickets

Muniyappa Convenes a Review Meeting of Senior Railway Officials to Further Streamline Tatkal Scheme

The Minister of State for Railways, Shri K. H. Muniyappa said that with the recent steep hike in the fares of the airlines, the demand and supply gap for Railway tickets have substantially increased which Railways is trying its best to reduce through various measures. Shri Muniyappa said this during his meeting of senior officers of Railways Board here today to review the progress of the steps taken to combat some cases of black marketing and purchase of railway tickets by touts. Member Traffic, Railway Board, Managing Director, IRCTC, Additional Member (Commercial) and other senior officers of Railway Board were present at the meeting.

Shri Muniyappa said that that the Indian Railways have been regularly monitoring the activities of the agents, touts and other individuals carrying out such activities and strict action has been initiated. The Minister said that every day on an average of around 15 lakh Railway tickets are being sold through 8838 passenger reservation ticket counters and the e-ticketing website through IRCTC, out of which the Tatkal tickets constitutes around 1.70 lakh.

Shri Muniyappa said that the Railways had introduced the Tatkal scheme to facilitate the bonafide passengers to travel by train at short notice. However, there are some reports of this facility being misused by some persons for pecuniary and personal gains, thereby defeating the very purpose of the scheme.

The Minister further said that some of the major problems being faced by the Railways are large scale sale of tickets within a short period in the counters, deployment of proxies to procure tickets at counters etc. To prevent misuse of the facility, Railways have taken steps like debarring the agents to book tickets during the first two hours, installation of CCTVs in all major booking centres to monitor the movement of touts, non issuance of duplicate in lieu of the lost Tatkal tickets and non-refund on cancellation of unused Tatkal tickets. The requirement of indicating Mobile number of the passenger in the application form is also being insisted to cross verify the genuineness of the passenger. Besides these measures, attaching the photo copy of identity proof of passenger has been made mandatory for booking of Tatkal tickets and carrying of ID card have also been made compulsory for all passengers of AC classes.

In addition, it has further been decided to change the time of booking of Tatkal tickets at the counters from existing 8.00 A.M. to 10.00 A.M. with effect from 10th July, 2012 to avoid congestion in the morning hours at counters for the normal advance booking passengers. The restriction on the agents for Tatkal tickets booking during the first two hours shall also continue. The Minister said that these steps have started yielding results.

The Minister also said that surprise inspections and preventive checks are being conducted regularly at reservation centres to contain the activities of the unauthorized agents and touts. These checks are intensified during peak/rush period and festival seasons. The department has carried out around 82,000; 61,000; and 65,000 surprise checks during 2009-10 to 2011-12, said the Minister. Against these surprise checks, around 4200 touts were apprehended and an amount of around Rs. 63,68,000/- were realized as fine and around 2000 persons were convicted. The connivance of around 170 Railway officers were also found during the above surprise checks against whom departmental actions were initiated which resulted in imposing of various penalties upon 102 officials including major penalties like removal, reversion from service etc.

The Minister said that IRCTC, a public sector undertaking of the Ministry of Railways which handles ticketing website, has also taken several steps to prevent touts and unauthorized agents from their illegal activities. Several technological innovations like increase in the bandwidth of internet, augmenting E-Ticketing software licences, technical evaluation of mobile based technology etc. are regularly being undertaken to cope up the demand and minimize the misuse of the system by unscrupulous people, added the Minister.

The Minister informed that the Ministry of Railways has also initiated steps to augment e-ticket handling capacity of its website through short term and long term measures. Due to these steps, the present capacity will increase from existing about 3.5 lakh bookings to around 5 lakh bookings per day in about four months period in the short term which will further be increased to about 8 lakh bookings per day in the long term plan. He informed that both IRCTC and CRIS are working jointly in this direction.

Shri Muniyappa said that wide publicity is being given at regular basis both through the print and electronic media appealing the general public to purchase ticket only from authorized sources so as to prevent prosecution and penalty. He appealed to the general public to co-operate with the Railways to make the system work successfully.

PIB

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