The Indian Railways on Thursday announced that it has cancelled all regular train tickets that have been already booked for travel till June 30. Full refunds will be issued to all passengers who had booked tickets for travel in these trains.
These measures, however, do not include the Shramik Special trains and special trains that started running from May 12. Shramik Special trains are taking migrant labourers from different states to their home states while the special trains are running on 15 routes to ferry stranded Indians across the country.
On May 12, Indian Railways had started 15 special trains in the ongoing lockdown with an aim to gradually resume the train services in India that are a lifeline for transport and communication in the country.
The tickets of regular trains, which are being cancelled, were booked during the lockdown period when the railways was allowing bookings for journeys in June.
While all e-tickets will be refunded automatically, those bought at the counter for journeys post March 21 can be cancelled and refunds taken upon submission of the ticket up to six months from date of journey instead of the present three days excluding day of journey. Regular mail, express, passenger and suburban services of the railways had been suspended from March 25 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.