Railway ticket reservation: How to get confirmed lower berth for senior citizens

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has recently clarified on the topic of booking multiple lower berths for senior citizens while travelling by Indian Railways.

Many passengers who travel by Indian Railways and uses the IRCTC for booking tickets may not be able to find the lower berth inspite of the provisions of booking a lower berth for senior citizens travelling by Indian Railways.

Recently a Twitterati posted the question to Indian Railways also tagging railway minister Ashwini Vashnaw on the same on Twitter,"to what logic do you run for seat allocation, I had booked tickets for 3 senior citizens with preference of lower berth , there are 102 berths available, yet allocated berths are middle, upper and side lower. U need to correct the same.

Replying to the tweet, an IRCTC official tweeted," Sir, Lower berth/Sr. Citizen quota berths are lower berths earmarked only for male age of 60 years and above/female age of 45 years and above, when traveling alone or two passengers ( under mentioned criteria traveling on one ticket."

In the follow-up tweet, the official further tweeted,"If there are more than two senior citizens or one senior citizen and other passengers not senior citizen , system will not consider it. " 

Meanwhile,  Indian Railways last year suspended concessional tickets of various categories of people, including that of senior citizens to discourage unnecessary travel in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

"In view of health advisory issued regarding COVID-19 and to discourage passengers from undertaking non-essential travel it has been decided, as a special case, that no concessional Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) and Passenger Reservation System (PRS) ticket for all categories of passengers except students, four categories of Divyangjan and 11 categories of patients shall be issued.

Railways also said the concessions have been withdrawn for senior citizens as the risk of spread and mortality rate due to COVID-19 virus is highest among that category.