Now dial 139 also to cancel reserved train tickets

Indian Railways has launched a new cancellation facility for reserved train tickets whereby a passenger can get it done by dialing the number 139, thereby reliving the passenger of the mad rush at the booking counter.

This facility, which is in addition to the ticket booking website of Indian Railways and the ticket counters at stations, will help harried passengers to cancel their tickets in time by just dialing the three digits.

After dialing the number 139, the passenger will have to give details of the confirmed ticket for cancellation and will receive a one-time password (OTP). Passenger can then claim the refund at the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counter after revealing the OTP.

Besides 139, one can also cancel confirmed tickets using IRCTC website and both the facilities were made operational from Friday.

Indian Railways has changed the software accordingly for enabling the cancellation through IRCTC website and 139.

Launching the service, railway minister Suresh Prabhu said it was an attempt on the Railway's part to provide relief to passengers for cancellation of tickets.

He said both the initiatives were promised in the Railway Budget 2016-17 which were fulfilled on Friday.

There has been a rush at passenger reservation counters to cancel reserved tickets well in advance after the change in refund rules, and a lot of passengers were finding it difficult to reach counters to cancel the reserved tickets within the stipulated time, it was noted.

Indian Railways has doubled the ticket cancellation charge under the new rules in order to both generate revenue and to help genuine passengers get confirmed tickets.

Prabhu also said Railways has its own fund challenges for carrying out expansion programme.

''We have to expand the railway infrastructure for which fund is required. We have to increase the income for this and all these have to be carried out in a transparent manner. It is a challenging task,'' he said.