At present the nation is battling against the deadly pandemic named novel coronavirus. To prevent the wide spread of the deadly virus the Prime Minister has announced a nationwide lockdown. Due to the extension of the lockdown, and suspension of passenger trains till the extended period the railways is set to cancel around 39 lakh tickets booked for journeys between April 15 and May 3 .
With the national transporter allowing tickets to be booked during the 21-day lockdown announced earlier for journeys starting after April 14, around 39 lakh bookings were made by passengers. However, with the lockdown being extended, the railways not only cancelled all its passenger services till May 3 on Tuesday, but also stopped advance bookings.
The Indian Railways, however, said all passengers will get a full refund for tickets booked for the cancelled trains as well as for those booked in advance. It added that the amount would be automatically refunded to online customers, while those who booked tickets at the counters could claim the refund till July 31.
Customers will also get a full refund of their ticket amount if they cancel their advance bookings for trains that are not cancelled yet, the railways said. It also said no advance reservation of train tickets, including e-tickets, will be allowed till further orders, though the facility of online cancellation will remain functional.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, on an average, around 8.5 lakh tickets were booked on the IRCTC website daily.
