Indian Railways has announced implementation of a new ‘Vikalp’ scheme from April 1, under which waitlisted passengers can get confirm tickets in the next alternative Train including the vacant seats in premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and other special services such as Suvidha trains in all major routes at the rates of the previous train they selected.

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Have you ever faced a cancelation of train tickets after long, really long waiting list? We all have, but frown no more because there might be a rather much better option available if the waiting list seems to have no end. Trains in India are always rushed and gushed and people often face problems with the endless waiting lists especially during holiday seasons; and in a secular country like India, we have holiday season at one place or the other in the country. People generally opt for Express and Mail trains and they are overflowing with waiting passengers while the Premium Indian trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto ploy around with vacant seats.

To ease out the inconvenience faced by people due to full trains while premium trains have empty seats, the Indian Railways has announced implementation of a new scheme called ‘Vikalp’ which will be implemented from April 1, 2017. So if someone opts for ‘Vikalp’ at the time of booking and is later stuck in the waiting list in an ordinary express or mail train, then they can get tickets for Rajdhani or Shatabdi or Duronto or any other premium train if they are available on the same track! Golden ticket to the premium trains, isn’t it? But opting for Vikalp option while booking the regular ticket is really very, very (can’t emphasis more!) important.

Initially the Vikalp scheme will be available only for e-ticket booking, but waiting is the key to a sweeter fruit my friend. Also, the twisty part of the scheme is that if the waitlisted passenger doesn’t like the alternative offer, they can cancel the ticket but it will be treated as cancellation of a fully confirmed ticket. And as you know it, the cancellation charges are heavy duty in true sense like zero refund if chart is prepared and for cancellations of confirmed tickets between 12 and four hours prior to departure, 50 per cent is levied as cancellation charge. But we don’t really have to bother about that, because we ain’t going to make no cancellation of premium tickets received at express rates, are we!

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