Saturday 27 September 2014

What is tatkal in Indian railway?

What is tatkal in Indian railway?

Tatkal is a facility provided for late bookings. For Eg, if you have to make a booking to Mumbai in peak time, you probably wont get the ticket at all. But You can make use of the Tatkal facility, which opens its booking before 1 days of the departure date (And charges a lil extra fee for the same). More info on tatkal can be found at the below page of Indian railways.

IRCTC & Indian Railway Tatkal Booking
Tatkal tickets are meant for last minute or immediate plans. It is the most sought after mode of booking tickets for train travel. 'Tatkal' literally means 'immediately'. Tatkal Booking starts one day in advance (reduced from 1 days) excluding the day of journey e.g. for a journey on 3rd, bookings would open at 10 am on 2nd; however, the day of journey is defined as the day of chart preparation. Accordingly, if the train starts on the 3rd of any month, and reaches the desired boarding station on 4th, the Tatkal booking will start on 2nd and not 3rd.

Tatkal Train Ticket Booking

The tatkal rail reservation scheme was started to aid travellers who are not able to book their tickets in advance. The service is available at railway reservation counters or one may also opt for the tatkal train ticket booking online facility. The scheme covers most Mail/Express trains across the country and includes almost every class of rail travel. The scheme was launched by Mr Nitish Kumar during his stint as Minister of Railways. Over the years, certain changes have been made to tatkal rail ticket booking to make the scheme all the more efficient.

Tatkal train ticket booking starts at 10 a.m. on the day before the journey. For instance, if someone plans to catch a train on 5th December, the passenger would be able to access the service at railway station ticket counters and over the Internet from 10 a.m. on 4th December. However, booking agents, including IRCTC agents are not allowed to use tatkal booking service before 12:00 p.m. In fact, all computerised reservation counters at railway stations are exclusively meant for tatkal reservations from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Normal bookings are allowed only if there are no seekers for tatkal tickets.

Anyone who avails tatkal ticket booking service, needs to furnish some proof of identity. Presently, documents allowed for the purpose are Voter Photo identity card issued by Election Commision of India, Passport, PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department, Driving Licence issued by RTO, Photo identity card with serial number issued by Central/State Government, Student Identity Card with photograph issued by a recognized School/College to its students, Nationalized Bank Passbook with photograph, bank issued Credit cards bearing laminated photograph, unique Identification card Aadhaar, and Photo identity cards with serial number issued by Public Sector Undertaking of State/Central Government, District Administration, Municipal bodies, and Panchayati Administration. The passenger is required to carry the identity proof used for making the tatkal booking.

The Indian Railways Tatkal booking is subject to some charges. For second class, the charge is 10% of the basic fare. For other classes, it is 30 per cent of basic fare subject to maximum as well as minimum charges for every class. For instance, while INR 10 is the minimum charge for second class sitting, the minimum charge for AC Chair Car and sleeper class is INR 75 and maximum is INR 150. For AC II and AC III tier classes, the minimum charge is INR 200 and the maximum is INR 300. It is also noteworthy that no refunds are given if the passenger cancels confirmed tickets bought through IRCTC tatkal booking.

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