India
oi-Gaurav Sharma
Indian Railways will have to provide travel insurance to passengers purchasing tickets from the railway counters with effect from October 27, 2026. This comes after a Supreme Court order directing the Railways to provide the cover to passengers buying tickets at the counters.
The directive will bring offline ticket buyers under an optional travel insurance scheme that has been available to those booking online so far.
Following a Supreme Court order, Indian Railways will provide optional travel insurance to passengers purchasing tickets at railway counters starting October 27, 2026, extending the scheme available for online bookings.
Here’s what you need to know about the new directive.
What the New Directive Means
Passengers booking eligible tickets through the IRCTC website or mobile application have so far been able to choose between opting for travel insurance or not.
The applicable premium under the existing scheme is 45 paise per passenger (inclusive of taxes), as notified on February 17, 2024.
With the latest directive, passengers purchasing tickets at the railway counters will also need to be covered under the travel insurance scheme, the method to collect the premium for such tickets is yet to be specified by the railways.
What Coverage Does the Scheme Offer?
The existing railway travel insurance scheme offers sum assured for different events as mentioned below:
- In case of death: ₹10 lakh
- Permanent total disability: ₹10 lakh
- Permanent partial disability: ₹7.5 lakh
- Hospitalization expenses: Up to ₹2 lakh
- Cost for transporting the mortal remains: ₹10,000
The coverage that will be offered to passengers buying tickets at the counters will depend on how the implementation of the scheme will take place.
Supreme Court Asks Railways to Make Travel Insurance Available to All Passengers
A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan delivered the order on October 6 while hearing a petition regarding the Odisha train accident that took place in June this year.
The petition sought a direction to inquire into the accident and asked for directions to enhance the safety mechanism of the railways. The petition also alleged that the Kavach train protection system was not properly implemented.
The Supreme Court had asked the railways to provide an option to buy travel insurance for passengers purchasing tickets from the counters, especially those belonging to the weaker sections of the society. However, the bench said that the time given to the railways to come up with a solution was wasted.
According to the report, the Supreme Court said that it will direct the railways to provide insurance coverage to all passengers buying tickets from the reservation counters with effect from October 27, 2026.
