IRCTC will no longer be offering free travel insurance from September 1, 2018 to their passengers. You will have to pay extra in order to avail the benefits of travel insurance as you travel in train from one place to another. As per the officials, Indian Railways is now implementing ways where there will now be option to choose whether a passenger wants to opt for travel insurance or not. It was made totally public by a senior Railway Ministry official. He stated that the IRCTC, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation has decided to put an end to the free travel insurance from Sep 1, 2018. However, the travel insurance for passengers will be totally optional after September 1. This is not so a happy news for frequent traveler in train.
From now on, at the time of ticket booking through the official online portal or through mobile application, travelers will have to select from two options: to opt-in or opt-out of travel insurance. The railway official also stated that in a proposition to encourage the digital transaction, the IRCTC has been offering free travel insurance to passengers since December 2017. Previously, the railways had also waived off ticket booking charges for users who make payments via debit cards.
The travel insurance that IRCTC offered had a maximum cover of Rs. 10 Lakh in the event of a person’s death during a train journey. The insurance cover was Rs. 7.5 Lakh in case a person is disabled because of an accident, Rs. 2 Lakh in case of an injury and Rs. 10,000/- for the transportation of mortal remains.
You must keep in mind that the children who are aged below 5 years are not covered under this policy. Just for the records, IRCTC had tied-up with Royal Sundaram General Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Shriram General Insurance to provide travel insurance policies to their passengers. And in return of which, 92 paisa per commuter was being paid to the insurance firms on behalf of the Indian Railway Corporation.
In a few days the order to charge for the travel insurance will be generated. So now, the expenses of travel insurance will have to be taken up by the travelers / commuters themselves from September 1. However, it is not yet clear as to how much have to be paid by a commuter in order to opt for travel insurance.
