I-ticket refund rules

Please help with rules for I-ticket refund:
Sleeper train ticket (Agra to Varanasi) I want to refund I would board in evening of 18 January. Train would depart from Jodhpur much earlier in the day.

1) By what time do I need to request refund in order to get most of my money back?

2) The actual physical ticket is not where I am currently and would need to be mailed to me and I don't think I will be able to receive it and then go to railway station until the 12th or even the 13th (namely after the train departure had already taken place). How much if any of a refund would I get doing it that late? My hunch is that it would not be worth it.

3) Am I correct in assuming that only the person who is the named traveler on the ticket showing proper identification can request the refund? If someone else can apply for the refund then things are much easier and the ticket would not need to be mailed to me. If someone else can request refund aside from the actual physical ticket is there something else that they need (for example an email print out from me indicating that I am asking ______ named person to submit a request for refund).

Thanks for any assistance with this - the person in Mumbai who has the physical ticket does not read English well but is quite familiar with the train system and can help out if the procedure is fairly simple. I understand that the refund would go back to the credit card on which things were originally charged.

Rail ticket website is not available right now otherwise I'd search for information there.

Thanks, Edward

P.S. Found this information on Steven's long post on the Indian Trains so I understand the refund basic rules and fees for cancellation. So still need to know the answer to #3 above.

The following are the basic refund rules for single ‘un-travelled RESERVED tickets’, there are many more rules, but I feel that these are the only rules a tourist will normally need to know.


You can get a refund a ticket as long as you pay a cancellation fee, but the fee varies.

More than one day in advance (excluding the date of the journey), the cancellation fees would be: -

1A = Rs 50
2A = Rs 30
3A = Rs 30
CC = Rs 30
FC = Rs 30
SL = Rs 20
II = Rs 10

One day in advance (excluding the date of the journey), and up to 4 hours before the scheduled departure of the trains, the cancellation fees would be 25% of the fare paid.

Less than 4 hours before the scheduled departure of the trains, the cancellation fees would be 50% of the fare paid.

You can also get a refund after the train has departed, if you were going to travel less than 200 Kms. You can get a refund up to 3 hours after the actual departure of the train, 201 – 500 Kms. = 6 hours after departure, and over 501 Kms. Would allow you to get a refund up to 12 hours after departure, the cancellation fees would be 50% of the fare paid.

The man in Mumbai can cancel the ticket for you.

He would need to get a reservation form (it's also a cancellation form), complete it, go to a computerised reservation centre, hand the cancellation form and the ticket over the counter, then he would be given a cancellation ticket (just like a train ticket) and the money would be refunded to your bank account.

If you look in the 'Train Info' thread below, there is a link to a thread called 'Understanding Reservation Forms'.

There is a section on the form that asks who is getting/cancelling the ticket (who is standing in the queue), your friend in Mumbai would need to put his name there, and sign the reservation/cancellation form.

Thanks a lot Steven. Your post has saved the day. Edward