Experts ask, “Why was a whopping 39 lakh online bookings allowed by Indian Railways until yesterday amid lockdown?”

Last updated on February 9th, 2023 at 01:03 pm

Questions have been raised about why the Indian Railways online bookings were open during the lockdown period. As per Indian Railways, it was available for passengers to book tickets for journeys after April 14, which was supposedly the last day of the 21-day lockdown.

On Tuesday, the Indian Railways suspended all passenger trains after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown till May 3. India has reported a total number of 11,555 confirmed, 396 dead and 1,362 recovered cased in the past 24 hours, as per worldometer. The Railways is set to cancel 39 lakh reserved tickets for the period of April 15-3 May, as per PTI sources.

According to the Government of India press release, all online and counter bookings will remain closed till further notice; only online cancellation of tickets will remain open for passengers. Ministry of Railways announced a full refund to all passenger train reservations and also advanced bookings against cancellation.

Read: How to keep a check on #SocialDistancing in lockdown period?

Despite the announced of refund measures, many passengers were unable to cancel their advance bookings due to immense traffic on the IRCTC website. Many passengers flooded the official Twitter handle of Indian Railways with queries; related to a popup showing error displaying ‘cancellation service is temporarily suspended, please try after some time.’

As per the IRCTC, Passengers need not cancel their confirmed Electronic tickets, and a full refund will be credited automatically for trains canceled by Indian Railways due to the extended lockdown.

Article Credit: Economic Times/Business Today