india

Updated: Nov 27, 2018 12:05 IST

The Indian Railways on Tuesday morning took a sideswipe at low cost airlines inviting people to travel by the railways.

In a tongue-in-cheek tweet that came a day after a controversy arose over some airlines charging flyers a nominal fee for seat selection during web check-in, the railways listed out the benefits of travelling by train.

“No need to pay extra charges for Web-Checkins. No long queues for checking in your luggage. Avoid unreasonable tariff & reduce your carbon footprint by travelling on the good old Indian Railways at affordable rates,” the Indian Railways tweeted.

No need to pay extra charges for Web-Checkins. No long queues for checking in your luggage. Avoid unreasonable tariff & reduce your carbon footprint by travelling on the good old Indian Railways at affordable rates. pic.twitter.com/ks9fVphoLO — Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) November 26, 2018

On Monday, the civil aviation ministry had tweeted that it was looking into a new policy reportedly introduced by two low-cost airlines - IndiGo and SpiceJet - to charge passengers for check-in over the internet.

The ministry had tweeted that it had the airlines’ move to charge for web check-in for all seats. “We are reviewing these fees to see whether they fall within the unbundled pricing framework,” the ministry had tweeted.

Unbundled pricing allows a flyer to choose and pay for the services the passenger avails instead of having to pay a larger amount for services that may not be availed.

The ministry’s tweet had come after IndiGo tweeted on Sunday that “all seats will be chargeable” as per its new online check-in policy. However, check-ins at the airport will not be charged, it said, while responding to some tweets.

IndiGo was responding to passengers who had questioned the low-cost airline’s move to levy a fee on web check-ins. In a series of responses to several tweets, IndiGo said that the seat fee policy had been revised effective November 14.

“Please be advised that our seat fee policy has been revised, all seats will be available for pre-allocation at a nominal charge. We look forward to your understanding in this regard,” IndiGo tweeted from its official handle.

Later in the day, an IndiGo statement said that they had not changed their web check-in practice and reiterated that “IndiGo customers will NOT compulsorily have to pay for the seats”.