Indian Railways to offer 20% discount on your return tickets
What's the story
In a bid to ease the festival season rush and streamline bookings, the Ministry of Railways has announced an experimental "Round Trip Package" scheme. Starting August 14, 2025, this initiative will provide a 20% discount on base fare for return journeys booked with onward tickets during the festive period. The offer is applicable on confirmed tickets in the same class and route for both journeys.
Purpose
Scheme to redistribute peak traffic during festivals
The "Round Trip Package" scheme is designed to evenly distribute passenger traffic and improve train utilization in both directions. It will be applicable for passengers who book their return journey within a specified period. The Ministry of Railways said, "In order to avoid rush, ensure hassle-free booking as well as facilitate passengers and redistribute peak traffic during peak festival seasons... it has been decided to formulate an experimental scheme named as Round Trip Package for festival rush on discounted fare."
Conditions
Key conditions under the package
The discounts under this scheme will only be applicable when both onward and return journeys are booked for the same set of passengers. The Ministry clarified, "Passenger details of return journey will be same as of onward journey." Booking under this scheme should be done in the same class and for the same origin-destination pair (O-D pair) for both onward and return journeys.
Booking process
How to book tickets under this scheme?
The booking start date for this scheme is August 14, for the ARP date of October 13. The onward ticket should be booked first for trains starting between October 13-26. Then, the return journey ticket should be booked using the connecting journey feature for trains starting between November 17-December 1. A total rebate of 20% will be granted on the base fare of the return journey only under this scheme.
Restrictions
Things to remember before booking tickets
Under this scheme, no fare refund will be allowed for booked tickets. The Ministry clarified, "No modification will be allowed on these tickets in either of the journeys." The scheme is applicable for all classes and trains, including special trains (Trains on demand) except those with Flexi fare. Discounts, rail travel coupons, voucher-based bookings, passes or PTOs, etc., won't be applicable during return journey booking on concessional fare.