The Indian Railways may resume the discounts it offered in fares before 20 March 2020. Ramesh Chandra Ratna, chairman of the Railway Board’s Passenger Service Committee, said that the Railways is now preparing to start many other facilities as well. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav is studying it. It is expected that many concessions including those for senior citizens will start soon.
Talking to Zee News about this, Ramesh Chandra Ratna, Chairman of Railway Board’s Passenger Service Committee said that due to coronavirus, the Railways had stopped the concessions given to the senior citizen, but now there is a possibility that in the future, the discount on train fare will resume.
“The feedback we got during the inspection of railway facilities will be kept in the railway board meeting on December 28. In this matter, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav ji is reviewing with great speed,” he said.
Indian Railways used to provide many concessions to senior citizens before the pandemic. Earlier, women used to get 50 percent discount in rail fares and there was 40 percent concession for men. For this, the minimum age limit should be 58 years for women and 60 years for men. In July 2016, the Railways made the exemption given to the elderly optional while booking tickets. After that, after 20 March 2020, this exemption was suspended due to the lockdown in wake of coronavirus.
During this period, about four crore senior citizens had to pay the full fare for their journey. This information has come to the fore through an RTI. In response to RTI, Railways has said that between March 22, 2020 to September 2021, 3,78 50,668 senior citizens have travelled in trains.