Rail Ticket Concession: There is important news for rail passengers. During the Corona epidemic, the concessions given to senior citizens in tickets were abolished, which is waiting to start. But in the meantime the Railway Minister has made a big announcement. Let’s know the latest updates.
No Railway Concession to Senior Citizen: There is important news for those traveling by rail. Indian Railways has categorically refused to resume the service of concession tickets to passengers of other categories including senior citizens and sportspersons who were closed during the Corona period. Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav said that the fares of the passenger segment of the railways are already very low and the railways has suffered huge losses due to the concessional tickets being given in different categories. In such a situation, now these people will not get concessions.
Railway losses due to discounted tickets
In fact, the question was asked to the Railway Minister in the Lok Sabha that when will the government start the concessional train journey again for senior citizens. Responding to this question, the Railway Minister said that due to the Corona epidemic, the railway is already running in loss due to the passenger service for two years. The Railway Minister said that the restoration of rail concession will have a worse effect on the financial health of the Railways, so it is not possible to restore the concessional train ticket service for all categories of people including senior citizens.
Railway Minister gave information
It is worth noting that at present, railways provides concessional train tickets to four types of disabled categories and 11 types of patients and students. The Railway Minister informed that due to discount on rail tickets to senior citizens, the Railways has suffered a loss of Rs 1491 crore in 2017-18, Rs 1636 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 1667 crore in 2019-20. Not only this, in 2019-20 where 6.18 crore senior citizens had traveled by rail, in 2020-21 1.90 crore and in 2021-22 5.55 crore elderly people have traveled by rail. He told that in 2019-20, 22.6 lakh senior citizens had given up the facility of concessional tickets.
Rail travel becomes expensive for the elderly
Actually, the big reason behind giving concession to senior citizens was that most of the elderly lack the source of income. After this, after the start of the corono epidemic (Covid 19 Pandemic) in March 2020, the government has suspended the concessions given to them for rail travel, in such a situation, rail travel is expensive for senior citizens. is falling.
Earlier discount was available
It is worth noting that before March 2020, in the case of senior citizens, the Railways used to give 50 percent discount to women and 40 percent to men for traveling in all classes in the case of senior citizens. The minimum age limit for taking this exemption from the Railways was 58 for elderly women and 60 years for men. But after the Corona period, all the concessions available to them have been abolished.
