The Railways on Saturday reduced the fares of AC chair cars and executive classes of all trains including Vande Bharat and those with Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches by up to 25% depending on the occupancy.
"With a view to optimise utilisation of accommodation in trains, Ministry of Railways has decided to delegate powers to zonal railways to introduce discounted fare scheme in trains with AC sitting accommodation, subject to terms and conditions," the Railway Board said in a statement.
"The discount shall be up to maximum 25% on the basic fare. Other charges like reservation charge, super fast surcharge, GST, etc., shall be levied separately," said the statement.
The train having classes with occupancy less than 50% (either end to end or in some specified legs depending upon the sections where discount is to be provided) during the last 30 days shall be taken into consideration. The fares of competitive modes of transport shall be the criteria while deciding quantum of discount.
The discount shall be implemented with immediate effect. However, no refund of fare shall be admissible for already booked passengers.
Tatkal quota shall not be earmarked in such trains for the decided period.
Such discount will be initially implemented for a period decided by the zones corresponding to the originating station, subject to a maximum of six months for the journey dates from when it is implemented. Discounted fare may be given for the entire duration or part duration or month wise or seasonal or for week days/ weekends based on demand pattern of the period.
Further review shall be made regularly and based on the occupancy, the discount may be modified or withdrawn.
If modification of discount or withdrawal of the scheme is decided, no difference of fare shall be charged or collected from already booked passengers.
In case of those trains where flexi fare scheme is applicable in a particular class and the occupancy is poor, flexi fare scheme may be withdrawn initially as a measure to increase the occupancy. In case this does not result in improved occupancy, only then discount scheme may be made applicable in those trains/classes, statement said.
Concessional vouchers/MLA/ex-MLAs coupons/Warrants/MPs/Ex-MPs/Freedom fighters etc shall be booked on original class wise fare and not on discounted fare.
The discount shall for tickets booked up to preparation of 1st chart and during current booking. The discount may also be permitted onboard by ticket examinar.
This scheme will not be applicable on special trains introduced as holiday/festival specials etc. The provision of this scheme will be applicable up to a period of one year, said the statement.