Encouraged by the response to the pilot project of the Unreserved Ticketing System in Delhi, the Railways proposed to implement it in other areas of Northern Railway, North Eastern, East Central, Eastern and Northeast Frontier Railways.

This was stated on Wednesday by Railway Minister Nitish Kumar while presenting the Railway Budget for 2003-04 in Lok Sabha.

Noting that obtaining a refund against a reserved ticket after the departure of a train was still a problem for passengers, Kumar said it was proposed to permit refunds of the amount due from any PRS centre, three hours after the train had reached its destination.

In case a confirmed or RAC ticket was lost by a passenger, a duplicate ticket could be issued, before preparation of Reservation Chart, on payment of ten per cent of 25 per cent of full fare based on the distance of journey or type of train.

As a customer friendly measure, it was proposed that charges for issuing such a duplicate ticket would be

refundable at a PRS Centre at the destination on completion of the journey performed on such a ticket, he added.

PTI