New Delhi, Oct 17
The Railway Ministry has reduced the time limit for advance reservation of tickets from 120 days to 60 days, excluding the day of the journey, from November 1, 2024, an official circular said.
The circular, which appears to be aimed at reducing the administrative load linked to cancellations and checking alleged wrongdoings by travel agents, was issued by Railways Director/Passenger Marketing-II Sanjay Manocha, who clarified that there will be no change in the limit of 365 days for foreign tourists.
The reduced period of advance reservation of ticket would also not impact bookings made before October 31, 2024. "All bookings done up to October 31 under the ARP of 120 days will remain intact," said the circular.
The Railways said despite the reduction in the time limit for advance reservations, cancellation of bookings made beyond the ARP of 60 days will be permitted.
The ministry also clarified that there would be no change in advance reservation time limit in the case of certain daytime Express trains like Taj Express and Gomti Express where lower time limits are already in force.
Facing multiple complaints from travellers, the Railways launched its next-generation e-ticketing system on June 14, 2018, which allowed users to enquire or search trains and check the availability of seats without login.
The new system also allowed a user to change the font size throughout the website -- a facility which has proven to be a boon for the elderly and others with vision problems.
The ticketing system also came with a new feature called 'My transactions' where a user can view booked tickets based on journey date, booking date, upcoming journey and completed journey.
The new user interface also facilitated seamless navigation in mobiles, desktops, laptops and tablets.
The next-generation e-ticketing system also allows a user to manage the payment option by marking six banks as preferred banks. Also, on completion of payment, the details of the booking are displayed in a user-friendly manner.
Indian Railways has the fourth largest network in the world with a route length of over 67,000 kilometres and as many as 2.4 crore passengers travel in trains every day.