Indian Railways Booking: Key Things To Know About Ticket Concessions

Indian Railways offers travel concessions to various categories of travellers, like students, sports persons, scouts and guides, farmers, industrial workers, teachers, senior citizens, handicapped persons, among others. The quantum of these concession ranges from 10 per cent to 100 per cent, as mentioned by Indian Railways on its portal- indianrailways.gov.in.  However, IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation), the online ticketing platform of Indian Railways offers concession on senior citizen tickets only. Other concession tickets can be availed at the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters only.

Here are key things to know:

 1. Concession is admissible on basic mail/express/ Rajdhani/Shatabdi/etc fares only and not on 'ordinary' fares applicable to passenger trains, superfast surcharge, reservation fee and Goods and Service Tax (GST) tax etc, said Indian Railways.

2. All types of concessions can be availed only when tickets are purchased across the counter at stations and reservation/ booking offices etc. No one is granted concession on the train. 

3. Availing two different types of concessions by the same person for the same journey is not permissible. 

4. The concessional ticket cannot be changed to a higher class even if you the passenger willing to pay the difference in fare.

5. In certain cases where concession is admissible in first class but not in AC 2-tier, concession tickets for AC 2- tier can be purchased on payment of concessional fare for first class plus the difference of actual fare of first class and AC 2-tier, mentioned Indian Railways.

6. Concession is not admissible for a journey where the cost of travel is borne by central/state governments/ local bodies/ corporations or government undertakings, universities, etc.

7. Some of the concessions are admissible subject to the minimum distance of journey.

8. Break of journey en-route is not allowed on a concession ticket for a journey for a specific purpose. It is allowed only where a break of journey is a natural event.