Overview
- Indian Railways announced Tuesday a phased rollout from April 1 to 15 that ends refunds for confirmed tickets cancelled within eight hours of departure.
- Refunds will follow a new tier: more than 72 hours before departure pays only a flat fee, 72–24 hours loses 25% of the fare, and 24–8 hours loses 50%.
- Passengers will be able to change their boarding station up to 30 minutes before the train leaves, which helps riders in cities served by multiple stations.
- E-ticket refunds will be issued automatically and paper tickets can be cancelled at any station counter, removing the old TDR filing and origin-station limits.
- The ministry says the rules match earlier chart preparation at roughly 9–18 hours and build on Tatkal curbs that use Aadhaar OTP checks, agent booking blackouts in the first 30 minutes, anti-bot tools, and the deactivation of about 30 million suspect accounts.