Indian Railways ticket price concession; Discounts on offer, check if you can travel virtually free
Those who can avail concession from Indian Railways include senior citizens, physically challenged travellers, students, widows of martyrs and others. Notably, Indian Railways'online platform IRCTC provides concessions to only senior citizens through online facility, and rest of the segments have to reach the counter to avail the same through passenger reservation system (PRS). The information related to such facilities can be seen at indianrail.gov.in.
Indian Railways, which transports a whopping 2 crore people every day, also provides travel concessions also in as many 53 categories and the quantum of concession ranges from 25% to 100%. Yes, that means you can even travel virtually free. For availing such concessions, the person seeking this facility needs to put forth certain certificates. Most of these concessions can be availed from the Indian Railways counter itself.
Those who can avail concession from Indian Railways include senior citizens, physically challenged travellers, students, widows of martyrs and others. Notably, Indian Railways'online platform IRCTC provides concessions to only senior citizens through online facility, and rest of the segments have to reach the counter to avail the same through passenger reservation system (PRS). The information related to such facilities can be seen at indianrail.gov.in.
Passengers desirous of making use of these Indian Railways concessions need to use the relevant concession certificates. The concession, however, is applicable only on the basic fare. The important rules of concessions extended by Indian Railways have been given below:
1.(a)All concessional fares shall be calculated on the basis of fares for Mail/Express trains irrespective of the type of train, i.e. Mail or Express or Passenger, by which the passenger travels.
(b)Concession shall not be granted for any journey the cost of which is borne by the Central or State government or a local authority or a Statutory body or a Corporation or a Government Undertaking or a University.
The students participating in the tournaments held or recognized by the schools or universities shall also be eligible for concession.
(c)Concession shall be admissible only in respect of basic fares. No concession is admissible in respect of other charges, viz. superfast sucharge, reservation fee, etc. However, in cases where concession has been allowed in Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Jan Shatabdi trains, the concession shall be admissible in the total charges (including catering) of these trains.
(d)The concessions will be admissible subject to the minimum distance of 300 Kms, except in the case of students, blind, orthopaedically handicapped/paraplegic persons, TB and Cancer patients, Kidney patients, non-infectious leprosy patients, mentally retarded persons, thalassamia major disease patients, Heart, Hemophilia Patients, War Widows, Widows of IPKF, Widows of martyrs of operation Vijay 1999 (Kargil), Widows of defence personnel killed in action against terrorists & extremists, National Awardee Teachers, Shram Awardee Industrial Workers, Widows of Policemen killed in action against terrorists & extremists etc.
2.Only one type of concession is admissible at a time at the choice of passenger and no person is allowed two or more concessions simultaneously.
3.(a) Break of journey en-route shall not be allowed on a concession ticket for a journey for a specific purpose viz. a student travelling to/from an examination Centre, a Cancer patient travelling to/from a hospital, a professor travelling to/from a Conference, etc. It is allowed only where a break of journey is a natural event.
(b)Passengers breaking their journey are required to have their ticket endorsed from the Station Master where journey is broken.
(c)Passengers terminating journey en route, must surrender their ticket at the station where the journey is terminated. Refund for the untravelled portion on such tickets will not be allowed.
4.Except senior citizens, concession on Indian Railway will be admissible on production of the requisite certificate from the concerned Person/Organization in India and the documents issued by persons/organizations in other countries shall not be valid for the purpose of concession.
5.In the case of Senior citizens, no proof of age is required at the time of purchasing tickets. Concession tickets are issued on demand made through the option in reservation form. However, they are required to carry some documentary proof showing their age or date of birth and produce it if demanded by some Railway Official during the journey.
6.The holder of a concession ticket is not permitted to change the ticket to a higher class even by paying the difference of actual fares.
7. Save as otherwise specifically provided, concession is not admissible in season tickets, circular journey tickets and prestigious trains like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, etc. which have separate all inclusive fare structure. Concession is admissible to any one in Garib Rath Express trains.
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8.In case where concessional single/return journey tickets or season tickets or circular journey tickets are to be issued for two or more persons, the concessional fare shall be calculated separately for each person.
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