The IRCTC will compensate passengers of new Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express in case of delay in the train's schedule, a first for the Indian Railways.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday flagged off the country’s first private semi-high speed train, Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express. He said, "It is the first corporate train of the country. I congratulate the first batch of passengers travelling in it and hope such initiatives are taken to connect other cities as well."
The commercial run of the train would start from Saturday onwards. IRCTC schedule dictates that the train will leave Lucknow at 6:10 AM and touch New Delhi Railway station at 12:25 PM, covering the entire distance in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Indian Railways has claimed that the journey time of the train will be lesser than the Swarn Shatabdi, which is currently the fastest train on the route.
Earlier, Ashwani Srivastava, chief regional manager (Lucknow), IRCTC, had told reporters, “The Chief Minister will flag off the much-awaited train on Friday.”
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had on Tuesday announced that the IRCTC will compensate passengers of new Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express in case of delay in the train's schedule, a first for the Indian Railways.
In a tweet, Goyal said: "Compensation for Delay: In a first of its own, IRCTC to compensate passengers of the New Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express in case of delay in the train schedule: - Rs 100 in case of a delay of more than an hour-Rs 250 in cases of a delay exceeding 2 hours."
In addition to the compensation, IRCTC will provide Rs 25 lakh in travel insurance to each Tejas passenger without additional charges.
It will be the first train in India that will be handed over to private players through the bidding process in the coming months. For now, it will be operated by the IRCTC.
The train's fare is based on dynamic pricing. Several new features are likely to be introduced in the trains, such as stewardesses and provisions such as luggage pick-up from homes of passengers.
(With ANI inputs)
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