New Delhi, January 16 The central government has issued an order allowing its employees to travel in Tejas, Vande Bharat and Humsafar Express trains under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme. Its aim is to provide more convenient and faster travel options to the employees to visit their hometowns or tourist destinations during holidays.
The order issued by the government states that employees can also use these premium trains in addition to Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains based on their eligibility.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has announced this decision after requests from several government offices and employees. Before issuing the final order, the DoPT has also prepared new rules by interacting with the Department of Expenditure.
Central government employees get reimbursement of ticket cost for to and fro travel as per their rank and salary under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC Scheme).
Some premium trains like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi and Duronto were already covered under the scheme, but the recently introduced Tejas and Vande Bharat trains were out of the ambit of the scheme.
The LTC scheme has a clause for employees that they can avail reimbursement of ticket cost to hometown or any other destination in India within a period of four years.
The LTC scheme provides two options to government employees and their family members. They can avail reimbursement of ticket cost to their hometown twice within a block of four years, divided into two periods each. The other option is to visit their hometown once in a two-year period and go on holiday to any place in India in the remaining two-year period and avail reimbursement of ticket cost for that journey.
