Sharmili Mallick

Bhubaneswar: The Indian Railways, one of the largest employers in the country, has been working day and night to cater the needs and prove convenience to the passengers. The Indian Railways not only offers online and offline facility to book train tickets but also helps passengers cancel tickets as well as assist them get refunds.

For further convenience of the passengers and save them from monetary loss, the Indian Railways has changed its two existing rules from April relating to missing of trains by the passengers.

In its new norm, passengers who have connecting tickets and fail to catch the second train due to late arrival of the first/connecting train will get the full refund of the second ticket. However, the passengers must have filled their exact details in both the tickets. Apart from this, the first ticket's arrival point and second ticket's starting point has to be the same.

In a related second new rule, passengers can now change their boarding station. However, the facility can be only availed by the passenger four hours before the departure of the train, which also mean that the change is to be made before the chart is prepared.

After the chart is prepared, the passenger will not be allowed to change boarding point. The rule would be applicable for all passengers having a reservation under general quota category.

A passenger with a 'Tatkal' ticket can also avail the facility. It may be noted that if a passenger changes the boarding point once, he will lose all rights to board the train from the original boarding point.

In order to get the refund, passengers having counter tickets will have to inform the concerned officials at the origination point of their journey. Those having e-ticket can change the boarding station by logging in to the IRCTC website before the chart is prepared.

Passengers can also dial the Railway number- 139 and request for the change in boarding point. However, the request has to be made four hours before the preparation of the chart.

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