The railways on Thursday launched a scheme allowing a person to get an insurance cover of up to Rs 10 lakh on booking a train ticket online by paying less than one rupee. A person booking a train ticket through the IRCTC website will be able to opt for travel insurance cover for a premium of 92 paise only.
The new facility will be available to all passengers, excluding those travelling by suburban trains while booking online irrespective of the class. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had in his budget speech, announced that the railways will provide optional travel insurance for train journey at the time of booking.
The cover will not be applicable for children upto five years of age and foreign citizens. It will be for passengers holding tickets such as confirmed, RAC and wait-listed ones. The scheme offers travellers/nominees/legal heirs a compensation of Rs 10 lakh in the event of death or total disabilty, Rs 7.5 lakh for partial disability, upto Rs 2 lakh for hospitalisation expenses and Rs 10,000 for transportation of mortal remains from the place of a train accident or where an untoward incident, including terrorist attack, dacoity, rioting, shootout or arson, occurs. However, no refund of the premium will be given in case of cancellation of the ticket. The scheme is being implemented by IRCTC in partnership with ICICI lombard General Insurance, Royal Sundaram General Insurance and Shriram General Insurance selected through a bidding process.