Rly reduce ticket reservation period to 60 days

New Delhi, July 13: The Railways today decided to restore the advance reservation period for booking of rail tickets to 60 days instead of 90 days, bringing to an end the experiment that had not gone well with the travelling passengers.

The decision will be effective from July 15, a ministry official said.

''However, all the bookings done up to July 14 under the advance reservation period of 90 days will hold good. Cancellation of bookings made beyond the period of 60 days will also be allowed,'' he pointed out.

The official said there would be no change in the time limit of 360 days for advance booking period for foreign tourists and 30 days for certain day-time express trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express and Shane Punjab Express.

On March 1, the Railways had decided to extend the reservation period to 90 days on a trial basis. It was further extended to another three months and was to be reviewed in August.

''After a thorough evaluation of the scheme, we found it had not gone will with the travelling passengers. The response from them was not enthusiastic,'' he said, adding that there were some pratical problems too.

''Hence, we decided to discontinue the scheme from July 15 itself, which was to be reviewed on August 1,'' he said.

UNI