{"id":129315,"date":"2026-10-17T11:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T06:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=129315"},"modified":"2026-10-17T11:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T06:18:51","slug":"indian-railways-travel-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indian-railways-travel-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Railways Travel Insurance: Supreme Court Orders Counter-Ticket Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Indian Railways Travel Insurance Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a significant move aimed at protecting passengers from marginalised sections of society, the Supreme Court ordered the Railway Board earlier this month to extend travel insurance to offline\/counter tickets.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, this facility is optional and available only for online-booked tickets. The court directed implementation by October 27, 2026, warning of consequences for non-compliance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why the Order Came Now<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plea arose from the June 2023 <\/span><b>Balasore train accident<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Odisha, which killed 296 people, seeking a commission of inquiry into the crash.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, the Apex Court set a firm deadline, warning sharply: \u201cif the Court finds that there has been no substantial progress&#8230; the Court may have to consider whether the Railway Board, as presently constituted, is fit to be permitted to continue in office.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Current State of Railway Insurance<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Train passengers are entitled to compensation for accidents and untoward incidents as defined under the <\/span><b>Railways Act, 1989<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 separate from and in addition to the railways\u2019 own compensation liability for passenger death\/injury.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Existing Rule<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Travel insurance is optional and offered only to e-ticket (online) passengers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>How it Works<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Railways merely links passengers to insurance companies via its website; the claim and liability rest between the passenger and the insurer \u2014 not the railways.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Eligibility Restrictions<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scheme applies only to Indian citizens \u2014 foreign nationals are ineligible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Covers only confirmed, partly confirmed, and RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) tickets at the time of booking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Waiting-listed passengers (who travel on counter-purchased tickets) are NOT covered.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Premium And Coverage<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Premium:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 45 paise per passenger (inclusive of taxes), as fixed in February 2024.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Covers:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Death, permanent total disability, partial disability, hospitalisation expenses for injury, and transportation of mortal remains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Sum insured<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Ranges from \u20b92 lakh to \u20b910 lakh, depending on severity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why This Gap Matters: Who Gets Left Out<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With rising digitisation, counter ticket bookings have declined sharply \u2014 over 87% of all reserved tickets are now booked online.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, those who still rely on offline\/counter bookings are predominantly from the lowest socio-economic strata and remote areas \u2014 a reality the Supreme Court explicitly recognised.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court observed that it had \u201cgranted sufficient time to the authorities to devise a mechanism for extending such coverage to persons belonging to the lowest strata of society, who, in most cases, purchase their tickets at the railway reservation counters.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Other Significant Exclusions From Current Insurance Coverage<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second class\/general class passengers \u2014 who form the majority of train travellers \u2014 are not covered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even for reserved classes (SL, 1AC, 2AC, 3AC), insurance is unavailable for passenger trains and suburban trains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Children under 5 years (ticketed without berth\/seat) are not covered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Children aged 5\u201311 years (ticket with or without berth) ARE covered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless of category, once insurance is opted for, the claim and liability remain strictly between the insured passenger and the insurance company \u2014 railways plays no role in settlement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court\u2019s order exposes an uncomfortable irony in Indian Railways\u2019 digital transformation: as online ticketing becomes the default, the very passengers most likely to need financial protection \u2014 counter-ticket buyers, waitlisted travellers, and general-class passengers from the lowest socio-economic strata \u2014 have been left outside the insurance net.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By setting a firm deadline and threatening institutional accountability, the Court has pushed railways toward a more inclusive safety framework, though the real test will be how quickly this gets implemented across India\u2019s offline ticketing system.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/sc-order-railways-train-insurance-compensation-10923025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indian Railways travel insurance may extend to counter-ticket passengers following a Supreme Court order aimed at improving safety and financial protection for marginalised travellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":129325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10938,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-129315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-indian-railways-travel-insurance","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129349,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129315\/revisions\/129349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}