The Indian Railways, on Wednesday, cancelled all rail tickets booked on or before April 14. Additionally, the national transporter has decided to give a full refund of all the tickets.

The railway board said, "It has been decided that all train tickets booked on or prior to April 14 for regular time-tabled trains should be cancelled and full refunds generated". Generally, for PRS counter tickets, passengers can apply for refunds within six months from the date of the journey. However, e-tickets will be automatically refunded.

For PRS counter ticket, passengers can file TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) within six months from day of journey (instead of 3 days) at the station. After that, they can submit the detailed TDR within next 60 days (instead of 10 days) to chief claim officer/ CCM Refund's office for getting the refund amount. The refund will be adjusted after verification. Passengers can also cancel PRS counter tickets through IRCTC's website and get refund across the counter within six months from date of the journey.

Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and IRCTC will be providing the balance refund amount of cancellation charge.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways will continue to run 230 of its IRCTC special trains on specified routes. In the wake of coronavirus pandemic, Indian Railways had suspended advance reservations for regular train services from April 15. Also, passenger rail services have been halted since March 25, when the nationwide lockdown began.

However, in order to assist the movement of stranded citizens, Indian Railways started special train services from May 12. Initially, the IRCTC special trains consisted of 30 Rajdhani-style air-conditioned trains. And on June 1, 200 additional special trains were launched including non-AC sleeper train services as well. Tickets for special trains can be booked on the IRCTC website (irctc.co.in), IRCTC mobile app, at railway station reservation counters, post offices etc.