Indian Railways Ticket Concession: You Must Know

By: Sakshi Kumari | onNovember 26, 2022

We travel via Indian Railways most often, sometimes for short distances or long ones. For journeying, you must book tickets online or from the PRS counter, check its PNR Status online, and look for different available trains between stations. But have you ever checked about the Indian railway concession, or Do you know that the railway provides concessions to its passengers?

If not! Let’s dive deep into the blog to learn about Indian railway concession rules.

Indian Railways endows travel concessions to various categories of passengers, including awardees, unemployed youths, students, army personnel, handicapped, escorts, tourist guides, patients, women, doctors etc.

General Rules for Concession in Indian Railway

Indian railways concession is applicable only on tickets booked from station ticket reservation counters. Although, you can avail the person with disability concession and railway pass concession online.
Concessional train fares get calculated based on fares of Mail/Express/Passengers irrespective of train types.
At a time, passengers can avail of only one type of concession.
Travel concession is applicable for a minimum 300km distance.
Concession will be applicable only on the primary charge, not for a super-fast surcharge, reservation fee etc. Nevertheless, if concession has been allowed in Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/Jan Shatabdi trains, the concession will be admissible for a total charge, including catering.
A journey break is not allowed in the concessional ticket. For example, if a student is going to Delhi for any entrance exam can not break the journey. If he does so, he needs to surrender the ticket to the station master and can not claim for the refund of the uncovered journey.
Passengers can’t change concession tickets to a higher class even by paying a different fare.
To take the concession on Indian Railway ticket, you must present the requisite certificate produced by India’s concerned person/organisation. The documents issued by persons/organisations of other countries won’t be permissible for railway concession.

Types of Concession Available in Indian Railways

Earlier, there were 53 types of concession in railway tickets. But after the outbreak of covid19, Indian Railways has cancelled 38 rail concessions, including senior citizen concession in Indian railways. However, the facility to provide lower berth to senior citizens is available. Presently, Indian railways provide 15 types of IRCTC rail concession, including students, which can be classified into 3- categories.

1. Rail Concession For Patients

In the Patients category, Indian Railways allows 50% to 100% concession for 11 types of patients, including cancer patients, non-infectious leprosy patients, heart patients, kidney patients, thalassemia major disease patients, haemophilia patients, AIDS patients, etc. Under this category, rail ticket concession is also provided to the person escorting the patient in AC and Sleeper Class.

Some highlights of railway concessions for patients

Cancer patients journeying for treatment or periodic check-up receive 100% concession in sleeper class & 3AC, 75% in 2nd & 1st class, 50% in 1 Ac & 2 AC. One escort also receives the same concessional percentage with the patients. However, in sleeper & 3AC, the escort receives 75% of concession.
Heart patients, Kidney patients, and Thalassemia major disease patients travelling alone or with an escort for treatment get 75% concession in 2nd, SL, 1st Class, 3AC, AC chair Car, 50% in 1AC and 2AC.
Haemophilia Patients, suffering from severe & moderate forms of disease travelling alone or with an escort for treatment or periodical check-up get 75% concession on train tickets in 2nd, SL, 1st Class, 3AC, and AC chair Car.
Non-infectious Leprosy patients travelling alone or with an escort for treatment or periodical check-ups receive 75% concession in 2nd, SL and 1st Class.
T.B./Lupas Valgaris patients travelling alone or with an escort for treatment/periodical check-ups obtain 75% concession in 2nd, SL and 1st Class.
AIDS patients visiting another city for treatment or check-up at nominated ART Centres acquires a 50% concession for train travel in 2nd Class
Ostomy patients travelling for any purpose receive a 50% concession in MST & QST. The same element applies to an escort.
Patients suffering from Aplastic Anaemia and Sickle cell Anaemia travelling for treatment or periodical check-ups to recognised hospitals by Mail/Express Trains get 50% concession in basic fares of SL, AC-2-tier, 3AC, AC chair car classes.

2. Indian Railway Concession for Different Abled Person

Under the Disabled person category, Indian Railways provides 25%-75% concession for 4-types of differently-abled persons, including Orthopaedically Handicapped/Paraplegic persons, Blind persons, mentally disabled persons, and Deaf & Dumb persons in sleeper and AC class. In this category, train concession is also offered to the caretaker of that person.

Things to know about Indian Railways concessions for disabled persons

Orthopaedically Handicapped/Paraplegic persons who can’t travel without escort travelling by train for any purpose acquire 75% railway concession in 2nd, SL, 1st Class, 3AC, AC chair Car, 50% in 1AC and 2AC, 25% in 3AC & AC Chair Car of Rajdhani/Shatabdi trains and 50% in MST & QST. The escort also receives the same amount of concession.
Mentally disabled persons (who can not travel with an escort), Blind persons, Deaf & Dumb persons (both anguishes together in the same person) travelling alone or with an escort for any purpose obtain 50% concession in 2nd, SL and 1st Class, 50% in MST & QST with one escort.

3. IRCTC Student Discount

Indian Railway issues concessional tickets in IRCTC for girls students up to graduation and boys students up to class 12 going to hometown and educational tour, girls going to entrance exam like medical engineering etc. Under these railway concessions, students can get Monthly Season Tickets (MST) and Quarterly Season Tickets (QST) in the sleeper and second sitting classes. Girls up to graduation and boys up to class 12th can get free second class MST. The students participating in any tournament organised or recognised by the schools or universities will also be eligible for the concession.

How to Avail Concession in Indian Railways

You can take advantage of a concessional ticket in IRCTC; if you buy it from the Rail Station reservation counter. There are two ways to take the benefits of rail travel concession.

You can take the concession from the station reservation centre. You need to produce the necessary documents directly at the station’s ticket booking offices.
Or, to take the concession, you will need to approach the designated Commercial officers of the Railway Area, Division or Zonal Railway Headquarters.

Railway officers verify the eligibility and issue a necessary authorisation letter to station managers and booking officers on which basis you get the benefit of concession. Although, with IRCTC official website or rail connect app, you can book concessional tickets for disabled person and Journalist, if you have photo identity card issued by the railways.

What is the Status of Cancelled Rail Concessions?

Railways cancelled 38 concession categories in March 2020, in which the major cancelled was senior citizen discount in Indian Railways. Earlier, the railway provided a concession of 50% discount to female passengers of age 58 years and above and 40% to male passengers of age 60 years and above in all classes.

People across the country are requesting to revoke the concession ban, especially the concession for senior citizens. However, presently the railway ministry is not able to reimplement the travel concession as it has already faced heavy losses in the last two years because of complete lockdown.

What is a Railway Concession Pass?

Indian Railways provides Monthly Season Tickets (MST) and Quarterly Season Tickets (QST) that are known as railway passes. MSTs issued for students are valued for a maximum of 150 km on half charge of an adult season ticket, and QSTs issued for students are charged 2.7 times of MST of the students.

Is Concession Available on the Train?

Yes! Rail travel concession is available on the train tickets. However, the railway has banned 38 types of travel concessions out of 53.

Who is Eligible for Railway Concession?

As of now, patients who have cancer, AIDS, non-infectious leprosy, heart problem, kidney problem, thalassemia major disease, haemophilia, T.B./Lupas Valgaris, Ostomy, Aplastic Anaemia and Sickle cell Anaemia, students and disabled persons including Orthopaedically Handicapped/ Paraplegic persons, Blind persons, mentally disabled persons, and Deaf & Dumb are eligible for a concession on IRCTC ticket in Indian Railways.

If you are also eligible to get benefits of railway ticket concession, you can avail it while your ticket booking. Afterward, you can check the train ticket’s PNR status online with rail app such as RailMitra to know whether your ticket has been confirmed or not.

RailMitra is a train information app through which you can check train time table, trains between stations, live train running stations, seat availability in different trains and order food online.

Besides, you can also stay connected with RailMitra to receive latest updates related to Indian Railways.