Hours after the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, many people in Mysuru made travel plans to destinations as far as Jammu Tawi and Guwahati in Assam. There were also instances of people buying tickets from Kanyakumari to Jammu Tawi.
This was not because people had become travel-savvy overnight. It was a desperate attempt to park the old notes for a refund by cancelling the booking, as the government had notified that old notes were valid for purchase of railway tickets till November 14.
Sources in the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway told The Hindu that there was a surge in high-value ticket bookings for trains like Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express, irrespective of the destination. A resident of Mysuru even booked tickets worth Rs. 70,000 for his family and sought a refund the next day, the sources said.
According to officials, there was a decline in the sale of counter tickets during the first two days with an increase in bookings of AC first class tickets to any destination.
A senior official said there was also a surge in bookings across Mysuru division, whose revenue increased by nearly 40 per cent on November 9.
The Kuvempunagar reservation office recorded a five-fold increase in revenue, which shot up to Rs. 4.96 lakh against the daily average of Rs. 1 lakh .
The spurt in bulk bookings resulted in change in refund rules and the railways announced that all refund beyond Rs. 5,000 would be through account transfer and not cash transfer. “We were running out of liquidity and hence, issued ticket deposit receipts,” said the official.
While there was an increase in the booking of high-value tickets, there was a dip in the general passenger movement, attributed to liquidity issues.
For the cash-strapped railways, the demonetisation exercise may even turn out to be a money-spinner as cancellations will also result in revenue by way of cancellation fee levied on each ticket.
