Railway passengers, who book their train tickets on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website, can now avail travel insurance worth Rs. 10 lakh by paying a premium of Re.1.
In the event of death or permanent total disability, the railway will pay a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to the passenger's kin. If he/she suffers from partial disability due to a rail accident, the passenger would be paid a compensation of Rs. 7.5 lakh or Rs. 2 lakh for hospitalisation.
In addition, the railways has offered to pay a compensation of Rs. 10,000 in case of an unfavourable or adverse incident such as terrorist attack, robbery, shooting or riots while transporting mortal remains of a passenger, an IRCTC official was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India.
Starting from Sept. 1, the new trial facility would be available for passengers who book tickets online on the IRCTC website. The insurance option will be available for any class, but will exclude suburban trains.
In case the ticket is cancelled, then the premium amount would be directly refunded to the passenger's account, through which the passenger booked the ticket, PTI added.
The Indian railways have tied up with ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Royal Sundaram and Sriram General for implementing the insurance scheme. A total of about 19 companies had reportedly participated in the bidding process, of which, the three have been selected, the railway official added.
Indian Railways ferries about 23 million passengers everyday and employs about 1.3 million people. The world's fourth-largest rail network earns about 97 percent of its revenue from tariff.
[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]
