look news india
Indian Railways, which is called the lifeline of the country, claims to provide all kinds of facilities to its passengers. These include different facilities for passengers of every age and class. Railways consider men aged 60 years or above and women aged 58 years or above as senior citizens. Railways also takes full care of these senior citizen passengers.
However, most people are not aware of the many facilities available to these elderly passengers during rail travel. Let us know about three such excellent facilities which senior citizen passengers can easily avail.
Lower berth reservation for senior citizens
Except for a few trains of Indian Railways, most have two types of coaches – reserved and unreserved. At the same time, there are three types of berths – lower, middle and upper. During reservation, keeping in mind the convenience of elderly passengers, the railways allocates lower berths on priority basis. In the case of female passengers, this facility is provided only after attaining the age of 45 years. At the time of reservation, they are automatically given lower berths by the computer.
First right turn on empty lower berth in a moving train
This facility is given to senior citizens on the basis of availability of seats. If lower berth is not available at the time of reservation, elderly passengers can meet the TTE in the running train and ask for an empty lower berth. According to the rules of the railways, if any lower berth remains empty after the train starts, senior citizens with middle or upper berths can request the TTE to allot it. After completing some formalities, the TTE allots them the berth.
Seats for elderly passengers in sleeper and AC coaches
All trains of Indian Railways with reserved coaches have some berths reserved for senior citizens. As per the rules, six lower berths are reserved in all sleeper coaches. Whereas, three lower berths in AC 3 tier and AC 2 tier coaches are reserved for senior citizens. However, as per the need, women above 45 years of age and pregnant passengers are also seated on these seats or berths.
Also, trains with all AC coaches like Rajdhani Express and Duronto Express have more number of berths reserved for senior citizens than regular mail and express trains.
Reservation in local trains of metros too
Railway local trains are very popular in cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Central and Western Railways operate local trains in Mumbai. Some seats are reserved for senior citizens in the local trains of both these zones. In most of these trains, seats are reserved for them in the coaches reserved for women. Apart from this, facilities like wheel chair and porter etc. are available for senior citizens at major stations of the country. However, a fixed fee has to be paid for the porter.