Coronavirus: IRCTC Suspends Bookings For 3 Private Trains Till April 30, Passengers To Get Full Refund

The Indian Railways on Tuesday suspended all the bookings for its three private trains till April 30. The passengers who had booked their tickets on IRCTC-run 3 trains, must note that the railways will refund the full amount of the tickets. The bookings for the three trains—the Kashi Mahakal Express on the Varanasi-Indore route, the Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas and the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas—were earlier stopped only between April 25 and April 15 during the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis, and booking of tickets for travel after the lockdown period was allowed.

Officials said the decision to not run the trains till April 30 was taken keeping in mind that the cases of coronavirus in the country were increasing by the day. All passengers who have booked tickets during that period will get full refunds, an India Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) official said.

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At present, IRCTC operates private trains on two very busy routes in the name of Tejas Express. These include the route from Delhi to Lucknow and Ahmedabad to Mumbai. In a tweet the body had announced that those who had booked for the journey between 15 to 30 April 2020 in the Tejas Express will get full refund.

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The Ministry of Railways earlier gave a clarification that reservation for journeys post April-14 was never stopped during the lockdown. The advance reservation period for taking reserved tickets is 120 days, according to the Railways. "Ticket booking for 15th April and beyond were made prior to the lockdown," the Ministry of Railways said in a notification. However, the ministry has not given any slot between March 24 and April 14 to anyone as passenger services have been suspended during this period.

PM Narendra Modi had announced a three-week nationwide lockdown starting midnight of March 24 to contain the spread of coronavirus. During the 21- day lockdown, only railways' freight movement is active to carry essential commodities across the country.

(With agency inputs)

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