Coronavirus Impact: Alert! IRCTC issues advisory for passengers over ticket cancellation; says don't do this
The Indian Railways subsidiary, Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC on Wednesday urged to the people not to cancel their e-tickets on their own if their trains being cancelled by the national transporter due to nation-wide lockdown to help curb the spread of deadly novel coronavirus pandemic.
Clearing the doubts of the railway passengers, IRCTC took to its official microblogging site and said: "Doubts have been raised regarding cancellation of e-tickets subsequent to the halting of railway passenger trains."
"It may be submitted that for trains cancelled by the railways in its complete run, refund on e-tickets is full and automatic. In this case, no cancellation exercise is required to be done on the part of the user," it further added.
The IRCTC official said that if users cancel his e-ticket in situations of train cancellations, there are chances they may get "less refund" or charge with a cancellation fee. "Hence passengers are advised not to cancel e-tickets on their own for those trains which have been cancelled by the railways," the advisory said.
IRCTC also said that the refund amount will be credited to the user account used for booking e-tickets automatically and no charges will be deducted by the railways in case of train cancellation.
IRCTC's remarks came as the national transporter announced the suspension of the passenger, mail and express services from March 23 till March 31. However, the railways extended the suspension of services till April 14 in the wake of the three-week lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from March 25 during his second special address to the nation on Tuesday night.
The Indian Railways has cancelled over 13,600 passengers trains across the country in a bid to combat the spread of novel coronavirus. Only freight trains are running to ensure the supply of essential services. About 9,000 freight trains are transporting essential items every day across the country.
On Wednesday, India recorded 562 cases of COVID-19 with 10 deaths.
Also Read: India coronavirus +ve cases climb to 562, death toll at 10. Check state-wise list
