Indian Railways offers rebate in tickets to stagger Diwali rush

The Indian Railways is offering discounted fares for passenger travel in a bid to stagger the rush at stations during the Diwali festival season. An official statement said railways is offering 20% rebate on base fare of return journey for round-trip packages to spread out the crowd. The discount is being offered for round-trip tickets where on-going and return journey dates fall outside peak Diwali festival rush days.

Officials clarified that travel in trains where flexi-fare is applicable, such as Tejas, Shatabdi, Rajdhani, and Duronto, will not be offered this rebate.

“Under this scheme, rebates shall be applicable when booked for both onward and return journeys for the same set of passengers. Passenger details of return journey will be same as of onward journey,” an official statement said while adding the above booking shall be permissible only for confirmed tickets in both directions.


Bookings under the discounted service will open on August 14, 2025 for onward journeys scheduled between October 13 and October 26, 2025.

Passengers must first reserve their onward tickets, after which they can immediately secure return tickets for travel between November 17 and December 1, 2025 using the Indian Railways' Connecting Journey feature.

The measures are being taken to avoid rush, ensure hassle free booking as well as to facilitate passengers and redistribute the peak traffic for a larger range during peak festival seasons and ensure both side utilization of trains, the statement added.