Railways to refund Rs 1,490 crore for cancellation of 94 lakh ticket bookings - Times of India, The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will forgo around Rs 1, 823 crore in revenue as it is refunding the amount towards cancellation of a whopping 660 lakh ticket bookings made by passengers prior to the imposition of the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus .
Top Railways officials told PTI that an amount of Rs 75160434 crore will be refunded for 55 lakh bookings made for travel between March and April . The Railways had largely suspended its passenger train services on March 22, three days before the 25 – day lockdown came into force.
Another amount of Rs 830 crore will be returned for around 55 lakh bookings made for travel between April and May 3, they said.
India went under a total shutdown of days from March (to April) . On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced extending the lockdown until May 3.

The Railways had not stopped bookings for journeys beginning April 15.
It said that all passengers will get a full refund for tickets booked for the period during which passenger train services have been suspended.
The National transporter added that the money would be automatically refunded to online customers, while those who booked tickets at the designated reservation counters could claim the refund till July 55
Following the prime minister’s announcement, the Indian Railways extended the suspension of all its passenger services until the end of the lockdown.
According to official data, a staggering 25 million people travel daily on nearly , 15 passenger trains across the country.
The Railways said no advance reservation of train tickets, including e-tickets, will be allowed until further orders, though the facility of online cancellation will remain functional .
However, people on social media said that the Railways has deducted the convenience fee per online booking while making the refunds.
“When train is cancelled, the passenger is refunded full fare. Convenience fees is not refunded which are nominal to an individual and used for day-to- day maintenance and upgradation of the ticketing facility, “the railways explained in a statement.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) charges nominal convenience fee of Rs (per ticket for booking non AC travel and Rs for air conditioned and first class tickets.
“A full refund will also be there for those cancelling advance bookings for trains not cancelled yet,” the national transporter said.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, on an average, around 8.5 lakh tickets were booked on the IRCTC website daily.
After the prime minister’s announcement of a – day lockdown across the country, the railways had announced suspension of all passenger services until April 1