You will no more need to carry your own bed linen or an inflatable air pillow for travel on Indian Railways. The Railways has now launched a take away bedrolls initiative that will provide take away bedroll kits at stations. The initiative is called ‘Personalised take away bedrolls scheme'
The Scheme
The scheme is also called the E-bedroll services scheme since the booking for these bedrolls can be done online. All passengers with a valid PNR can book for a takeaway bedroll kit on payment basis.
Bedrolls are disposable. Hence, passengers can take them home after journey. Take away bedroll kits will be available in two variants.
Variant 1: Bedroll kit packed in a non-woven fabric bag consisting of two cotton bed sheets and one pillow at a cost of Rs.140. (Inclusions: Cotton bed sheets (02) and a pillow (01))
Variant 2: Blanket kit packed in a non-woven bag consisting of one blanket at a cost of Rs.110. (Inclusions: Blanket (01) (Packed in a bag))
Note: The above cost is inclusive of all taxes and is uniform across India.
How to book a bed roll?
The services would be PNR based. The bed roll can either be booked online from IRCTC Tourism (pre-paid) or bought across the counter at IRCTC outlets in the stations. The bedroll booked online would be provided to the passenger on their seat/berth. Passengers will have an option of booking either of the two variants available or both. The maximum of bedrolls allowed to be booked per passenger will be two (one each of either variant).
For online booking, the website asks for PNR number, validates the same and shows information on availability, cost etc. Passenger can book the required bedroll kits and pay through credit / debit / pre-charged cards and the bank charges for the transaction have to be borne by the customer. Booking will be confirmed at the website and also through e-mail and SMS.
The Bedrolls service will be available only between 6am and 10pm. In case of trains running late and reaching a station beyond 10pm or before 6am, bedrolls will not be delivered and treated as non-delivery by IRCTC.
The bedrolls can be booked in advance, from 60 days before the day of travel to up to five hours before scheduled departure of train.
Cancellation
A passenger can cancel or amend his order through IRCTC Tourism with the registered ID. To avail the refund, cancellation or amendment has to be done before five hours of scheduled departure and the cancellation charges of 20% will apply. For cancellations done within five hours of the scheduled departure, no refund will be granted.
The Refund amount will be credited to the card account through which the original booking was made. IRCTC will also refund 100% charges to the passenger in case of non-delivery.
One toll free number 1323 will give all the information about kits, availability & cost. This will be operational only between 6am and 10pm.
Current Availability
Currently, the scheme would be available only at Chennai Central Railway Station and Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station. This scheme will be extended to other stations in the country in phases. The list of stations available for online booking of bed rolls will be updated by the Railways as more stations are added to this scheme.
