Have you selected the lower berths option while booking train tickets for senior citizens and still haven’t got one? Here’s why? While responding to a tweet by a passenger, Indian Railways recently clarified on the provision of booking multiple lower berths for senior citizens.
The Indian Railways said that though the national transporter introduced special trains to meet immediate requirements, restarting unreserved passenger trains is under consideration. The Railways official further stated that the decision follows requests from many states to resume normal operations and demand from passengers.
Recently a Twitterati posted the question to Indian Railways also tagging railway minister Ashwini Vashnaw on the same on Twitter, “to what logic do you run for seat allocation, I had booked tickets for 3 senior citizens with the preference of lower berth, there are 102 berths available, yet allocated berths are middle, upper and side lower. U need to correct the same.
Responding to his tweet, an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) official wrote: “Sir, Lower berth/Sr. Citizen quota berths are lower berths earmarked only for male age of 60 years and above/female age of 45 years and above, when traveling alone or two passengers ( under mentioned criteria traveling on one ticket.”
In another tweet, the official wrote: If there are more than two senior citizens or one senior citizen and other passengers,s not senior citizen, the system will not consider it.”
Not happy with the IRCTC reply, the passenger again asked: “Why not put a simple logic that sr citizens should be given lower berth if available. What is the logic of all 3 sr citizens not being allowed if seats are available? Absurd expecting sr citizens even if accompanied by another passenger will be able to climb upper berth.”
“In view of health advisory issued regarding COVID-19 and to discourage passengers from undertaking non-essential travel it has been decided, as a special case, that no concessional Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) and Passenger Reservation System (PRS) ticket for all categories of passengers except students, four categories of Divyangjan and 11 categories of patients shall be issued.
Railways also said the concessions have been withdrawn for senior citizens as the risk of spread and mortality rate due to the COVID-19 virus is highest among that category.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO BOOK TICKETS ONLINE THROUGH IRCTC WEBSITE:
- Visit the website at irctc.co.in/nget/train-search
- Fill your source and destination stations
- Select journey date and class of coach
- Click on the ‘Find Trains’ option
- A number of options will appear
- Choose the train that suits your requirement
- Click on ‘Availability and Fare’
- The berth fare of the particular train along with the number of available seats on a particular date will be displayed
- Click on ‘Book Now’ if there are seats available
- At this stage, you will be asked to log in to your IRCTC account
- Enter your credentials to log in
- Fill in the details of the passenger(s) to book the seats
- Pay the fare of the seat(s) to finalize your booking.
