[Resolved]  Irctc — Lower berths are not alloted

Indian Railways — non allotment of seat opted in reservation form

Dear Sir

I have booked an e- ticket through www.irctc.co.in on 17th November, 2008 at 11: 06: 59 AM for two passengers. The detail ticket is as folows:

Transaction ID: [protected]
Train No. & Name: 2415/ Nizamudin Exp
Class : 3AC
From: INDORE JN BG (INDB) TO MATHURA JN (MTJ)
PNR NO. [protected]
Date of Jouney: 02- Dec- 2008
No. of passengers: 2

One of the passenger, my mother is senior citizen with fractures on both legs and suffering from heart problem. I have opted lower birth for her, at the time of booking the ticket, and despite of the fact that there were 28 seats vaccant, she was alloted upper birth.

I request you to kindly allot her a lower birth so that she can travel comfortably.

Please do the needful at the earliest and confirm me the seat staus.

Regards
Ashok Gupta
Indore

From your issue it seems u r a first time traveller in train.
Firstly people aged 50 are not that old and as unhealthy as described you who cannot do without a lower berth. You should note that there may be hundreds in your train more than 50.
Secondly lower berth quota is only for senior citizens..i hope u knw who are senior citizens. Definitely not aged 50. Now again a lower berth is not guaranteed for a senior citizen if they make a booking too late when all the lower berths in the quota have been already alloted to others.
Now in ur case 165 seats were available which does not mean that they are all lower berths. The lower berths available in 165 could be very few as lower berths are mostly occupied at the start of reservation cycle. And those very few could be for senior citizens and other quota.
Providing an option of Lower berth while booking does not guarantee that it will give u a lower berth. The system only checks the availability and if available then it allots. In your case it was not available.
If you have gone to the counter you may have had a better chance as the counter booking also has some quota for lower berths. Hope this satisfies your query.

It always happens with IRCTC..when i prefer some seats it does not give as per my choice..! If i dont choose anything, then no need to say..it will never keep us together..!! Even when booking 2 seats, i dont understand how to proceed to book both of them adjacent..that's really irritating..!

If selection column is there in reservation form, IRCTC must allot lower births to senior citizens, but it is observed that after giving choice lower birth is not allotted and ticket is also not booked and amount is deducted from Bank Account and it is said that amount will be depositd after two to four days, If lower births are not booked then why IRCTC deduct the amount from Bank, Amount should not be deducted if lower birth is not alloted.

Any of the above comments do not explain my experience:

200+ seats available and yet 2 senior citizens traveling together (male 77 ysr & female 67 yrs) cannot get lower berths when booked thru irctc. If I use the option "do not book if at least one lower berth is not allocated" then it actually doesn't book. The strange thing is there is a lower berth quota for senior citizens due to which when I tried bookin each ticket individually then I can get lower berth (proving there are lower berths available), but of course allocated seats aren't together. However the quota is not applicable if 2 senior citizens are traveling together - and not even one lower berth will be given in such a scenario. Shows how much thought the railway babus have put in while making up these rules and remember we pay their salaries.

I am totally disgusted and annoyed with the way seats are given in the irctc.

My parents could not travel, they are senior citizens and also have heart problem. There are 40 seats available and for a journey of 30 hours it is giving upper births. What foolishness is this. I totally hate this ticket booking.

I am also facing same problem repeatedly for several time now. My parents (Mom, 58 and Dad, 65) travel from HWH to PUNE and back twice a year. Every time they book ticket they get door side berth. And they never get lower seat and this time they got two side upper seats when 214 seats were available. One of my parent's friend suggested to go to the counter and book, as IRCTC never treats senior citizen with respect, may be because of concession in fare.
I travel from PUNE to HWH once a year and I always get proper seats as specified while booking. This means there is no problem with the portal and they do this intentionally.

I also has same problem. During the booking, their was 149 seats available. My parents age is 56 and 53 respectively. and due to heavy wait and knee pains, my father can't use MB/UB. so I choose LB in my preference, but the system allotted UB, MB, MB for my mom, me and my dad respectively. I processed the tickets on Sunday and now today is Wednesday still, 125 births are available in this train.

I also sent my tweat regarding the same, emailed to [protected]@irctc but did not any reply yet. I visited railway reservation counter but they said IRCTC is different then our department, so we can't help you on this issue.

IRCTC should show the birth number/type before payment. at least when the confirmed seats are available (same as the system available on the counter booking). So, i[censored]ser found that the available seat is not based on their criteria, they leave the booking.

But for now, please suggest what action should I take for this kind of behavior of IRCTC. Should I file the complain in consumer forum?