The details of different avenues available for a passenger to get a refund of fare on cancellation of tickets as per Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015 are as under:-

(i). Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counter tickets/Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) tickets on surrendering of an original ticket are canceled and amount due is refunded across the reservation/booking counters, within the prescribed time limit.

(ii). E-ticket is cancelled/ Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) filed online on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website within the prescribed time limit. The refund amount is credited to the account from where the payment for the booking of the ticket has been made.

(iii). In exceptional circumstances as per Refund Rule, TDR can be filed for getting refund beyond the prescribed time limit.

(iv). PRS counter tickets can also be cancelled through IRCTC website (www.irctc.co.in) or through 139 and refund amount can be collected across the reservation/booking counters on surrendering of original tickets within the prescribed time limit.

(v). Station masters of nominated stations have powers to allow cancellation of tickets and grant refund of fare in exceptional circumstances.

As per Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015, the e-tickets booked through IRCTC website are cancelled/TDR filed through the IRCTC website only within the prescribed time limit. In exceptional circumstances, the passenger may approach IRCTC or Office of Chief Commercial Managers (Refund) of concerned zonal Railways for grant of refund. In case payment is deducted and the Passenger Name Record (PNR)/ticket is not issued due to technical reasons, the refund is processed by IRCTC automatically on the following day of the transaction made by user after confirmation through the file of the transaction from bank and PNR generation from PRS.

All cancellation and refund of fare is governed by Notification dated 4th Nov., 2015 as Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015. In exceptional circumstances, there is already provision for refund of fare by Chief Commercial Managers (Refund) of concerned zonal Railways. Also, Station Managers of nominated stations of zonal Railways have been authorized to grant refund of fare on counter tickets in exceptional circumstances.

Further to the provision indicated above, to facilitate the passengers PRS counter tickets are also cancelled at relatively smaller stations wherever PRS booking facility is available throughout the day and refund is granted beyond the working hours of PRS counters/current counters.

Also to facilitate e-tickets passengers in case of cancellation of trains, automatic cancellation is done and refund amount due is credited in the account from which the booking transaction took place. Cancellation or Filing of online TDR is not required in such cases.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.