Railway Discounts: Faced with stiff competition from roadways and low-cost airlines, railways is set to offer up to 25% discounts on trains such as Shatabdi Express, Tejas and Gatiman Express which have low occupancy to bump up ticket sales, according to a senior official.
In a bid to fill the vacant seats in trains and meet the challenges posed by the roadways and airways, the Indian Railways has decided to give a discount to passengers on ticket fares. According to the Railways, the decision will be applicable in air-conditioned executive class and chair cars of trains like Shatabdi Express, Gatiman Express, Tejas Express, Double Decker and Intercity Express.
Railway Discounts: HIGHLIGHTS
- According to the Railways, the decision will be applicable in trains like Shatabdi Express, Gatiman Express, Tejas Express.
- Under this rule passengers will be given up to 25% discount on the base fare in selected trains with less than 50% occupancy, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
The discount will be given on the base fare of trains with AC chair car and executive chair car seats and charges like GST, reservation fee, superfast tariff, and others will be levied separately, the official said on Tuesday.
“Trains with monthly occupancy of less than 50 percent in the previous year are eligible for the discount,” the official said.
“A decision on giving a discount of passenger fare was taken today (Tuesday) and a circular has been issued to all the zonal managers,” a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS. He said, under this rule, passengers will be given up to 25 percent discount on the base fare in selected trains with less than 50 percent occupancy.
According to the circular, the percentage of discount on the fare and the right to decide the route of the train has been given to the Principal Chief Commercial Manager of the Zonal Railways.
The discounts, the ministry has said, can be offered yearly, half-yearly, seasonally or during weekends. Once the scheme is in place, no other discounts such as the graded discount in Shatabdi Express trains or Flexi-fare will be applicable, the official said.
The zones have been asked to identify such trains with low occupancy by September 30, the ministry has said, adding that efforts should be made by the zones to ramp up occupancy.
