Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: A last-minute change in plans will cost you dearly, as the railways have announced a revised rule linking refunds to the timing of ticket cancellations before the scheduled departure of trains. As per the new rule, passengers who cancel their tickets less than eight hours before departure will receive no refund, while cancellations made between eight and 24 hours before departure will result in a 50% deduction.Announcing the changes as a part of ongoing reforms, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday that under the new norm there will be 25% deduction for tickets cancelled between 24 and 72 hours before train’s departure while a minimal amount will be deducted for cancellation before 72 hours. The new rules will take effect between April 1 and 15.At present, passengers get no refund for cancelling a ticket within four hours and 50% deduction happens for tickets cancelled within 4-12 hours before train departure. Similarly, only 25% is deducted for tickets cancelled within 12-48 hours and there is minimal deduction for cancellation before 48 hours.Vaishnaw said tighter refund norms have been decided after investigation in the light of touts still hoarding some tickets and black marketing them. He said decoy customers sent by railways found how touts take advantage of the provision of last minute cancellation. The changes will discourage black marketing and last-minute sale of tickets by agents, he added.The minister also announced that passengers who have booked online tickets will be able to change the boarding point (station) 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. Currently, a change of boarding point is allowed only before preparation of the first chart.Vaishnaw announced reforms in the contracting norms to improve the quality of construction as well. As per the new norms, railways will assess the bid capacity of contractors bidding for all projects above Rs 10 crore. He also said that as per new norms, contractors must carry out works for 60% of total price directly under their own supervision and sub-contracting is allowed to 40%, something that follows PM Narendra Modi’s instructions to infrastructure ministries.Learning from the first Dedicated Freight Corridor project where players without having experience in similar project bagged work, which caused complications, now contractors who have done at least 20% “similar work” will only be eligible to bid. The bidders will also have to submit a detailed execution plan before the project starts for better monitoring and timely execution. Railways will take additional performance guarantee where the successful bidder quotes significantly lower than the estimated project cost.
