Indian Railways offers the facility of preponing and postponing the date of a journey of a ticket booked at a station counter, as mentioned on railway portal- indianrailways.gov.in. The date of journey on confirmed/RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation)/waitlisted tickets can be preponed or postponed in the same/higher class or for the same destination on payment of prescribed charges. However, this facility is only available for offline tickets. IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation), the e-ticketing arm of Indian Railways doesn't provide online booking date change facility.
Preponing and postponing the date of a journey of a ticket booked at a station counter can be availed only once, irrespective of whether the accommodation available is reserved or RAC or waitlisted. Customer willing to prepone or postpone the date of journey should surrender his/her ticket during working hours of reservation office at least forty eight hours before the scheduled departure of the train in which originally booked, subject to restriction during first hour of advance reservation period opening if any, said Indian Railways.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways also allows the facility of extension of journey. This can be done by approaching the ticket checking staff either before reaching destination or after completion of booked journey. The fare for the extended portion of the journey is collected without the benefit of telescopic rates.
Passengers can also change the boarding station of the journey by submitting a written request to the station manager of the original boarding station or by contacting any computerised reservation centre, at least 24 hours before the departure of the train for offline tickets. However, no refund is permissible for the unused portion of the journey, said Indian Railways. This facility is also available for online tickets.