Insurance companies to pay Rs 1.6 lakh to 950 passengers for Tejas delay

NEW DELHI: The catering and ticketing arm of railways, IRCTC will end up paying close to Rs 1.6 lakh as compensation to around 950 passengers for delay in arrival of “private” Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express on Saturday. However, railway ministry officials said there is no such plan to offer compensation for delay even in premium trains.

The compensation amount will be paid by the insurance companies involved in this train service. “This policy has been introduced by IRCTC for this particular train and in this case the agency has full freedom to fix the fares,” said a railway ministry official.

As per reports, Tejas left from Lucknow at 9.55 am instead of its scheduled departure at 6.10 am. It reached New Delhi at 3.40 pm, a delay of more than three hours. Similarly, it left from New Delhi at around 5.30 pm instead of its scheduled departure time at 3.35 pm and it reached Lucknow at 11.30. The delay during the return trip was over an hour.

The IRCTC had announced the compensation policy specifying that each passenger will be entitled to get Rs 100, if the train is delayed over one hour and Rs 250 for more than two hours delay.

Source: The Times of India