Railways makes ticket cancellation rules stricter, brings stricter norms for quality construction | India News

New Delhi: Last-minute changes in plans will cost you dearly, as the Railways has announced a revised rule linking cancellation of tickets before the scheduled departure of trains with refunds. According to the new rules, passengers who cancel their tickets less than eight hours before departure will not get any refund, while cancellations between eight and 24 hours before departure will be deducted 50%.Announcing the changes as part of the ongoing reforms, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnab on Tuesday said that under the new rules a 25% deduction will be made for tickets canceled between 24 and 72 hours after the departure of the train and a minimum deduction for cancellations before 72 hours. The new rules will be effective from April 1 to 15.Currently, passengers get no refund for canceling a ticket within four hours and a 50% discount for tickets canceled between 4-12 hours of train departure. Similarly, only 25% is deducted for tickets canceled within 12-48 hours and there is a minimum deduction for cancellations before 48 hours.Vaishnav said the strict refund rules were decided after an inquiry in light of touts still hoarding some tickets and black-marketing. He said the Railways sent dodgy customers seeing how touts took advantage of the last-minute cancellation provisions. The changes will discourage black-marketing and last-minute ticket sales by agents, he added.The minister also announced that passengers who have booked tickets online can change the boarding point (station) 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. At present, change of boarding point is allowed only before the first chart is made.Vaishnav announced reforms in contract rules to improve construction standards. As per the new rules, the Railways will evaluate the bid capacity of bidding contractors for all projects above Rs 10 crore. He also said that as per the new rules, contractors must carry out 60% of the total cost of work under their own supervision and sub-contracting is allowed for 40%, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive to the infrastructure ministries.Learning from the first dedicated freight corridor project where players bagged the work without similar project experience, leading to complications, now only contractors who have done at least 20% “similar work” will be eligible to bid. Bidders should submit a detailed implementation plan before starting the project for better monitoring and timely implementation. Railways will undertake additional performance guarantees where the successful bidder quotes significantly less than the estimated project cost.