From November 1, the advance reservation period to book train tickets on the Indian Railway will be 60 days. The decision was taken to bring down the period from 120 days to 60 days.
However, the new rule will not impact the already booked tickets.
The advance reservation period was 60 days till April 1, 2015. The government then changed norms as to extend the booking period to 120 days. At that time, the argument presented by the Indian Railways was that advancing the period would discourage the touts as it involves more cancellation charges.
However, many had then argued that advancing the date 10 120 was aimed at getting some extra revenue for the cash-strapped Railways by way of interest for the extra 60 days as well as a higher number of cancellations.
The IRCTC had recently come up with a slew of changes, including plans to eradicate the longstanding issue of waiting lists within the next five to six years on trains to ensure that every traveller secures a confirmed berth.
There were also plans to launch a railway super app wherein passengers utilise a wide range of services, from ticket booking to travel planning and revolutionising the way individuals engage with Indian Railways.
There were also plans to implement AI-enabled cameras to not only monitor linen and food quality but also to optimize train occupancy. This is done by analysing data and predicting seat availability after the reservation chart is prepared. "One Al model we used for checking the occupancy of trains had led to over 30% increase in the rate of the confirmed ticket," Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishav had informed.