Detail Information’s and Recent changes made towards Tatkal Booking Schemes by Indian Railways

About Indian Railway journey and History of Online Railway Booking

There are several modes of Transports being used in our daily life. The selection of mode of transport duly lies in the hands of an Individual. Due to recent developments in work nature and business opportunities the peoples are in a position to travel from one place to another may be official or unofficial. In such type of situation people feel to make their journey more pleasant and remarkable. In present scenario the accessibility of Railways by the traveler has been increased and this let with a drastic growth in sale towards Railways. People prefer Indian Railways since Indian Railways has one of the lowest train fares in India and due to this situation all caters of people in spite of their caste, creed and language are benefited.

The booking of Indian Railways was carried out manually till late 1980's.The first computerized railways reservation was opened at New Delhi during the year 1986 and later in 1995 with technological developments and advancement the booking of Railway tickets was fully computerized and made Internet friendly where the users have the option to book Tickets towards his journey from any corners of the world. In order to get in business the Railway has decided to charge few extra money very less amount made towards the booking. Moreover to make frequent user of Railways benefited the Indian Railways has also come up with several seasonal and monthly passes.

Indian Railways by taking several factors into consideration has come up with special Discounts in Railway Tickets for Senior Citizens and Disabled persons. Moreover an even special compartment with specific sets of seats has been assigned for ladies under different classes in various forms of Indian Railways. In order to make our journey pleasant the Railways has given flexibility of booking tickets before two months from the actual date of journey. In order to get with a Railway Ticket several personal inputs and travel details are to be specified in prescribed ticket booking application form. There is also option to travel in train without prior booking of tickets and in such situation the individual can purchase their required journey tickets from the platform counter before the departure of the train.

Points to Remember before Railway Ticket Bookings and Seat Reservations

1.Reservation can be done through Railway Reservation Counters or carried out Online.
2.If your ticket consists of Coach and Berth Number then your journey is confirmed.
3.If RAC is printed on our ticket then one can get into the coach but will be accompanied only with sitting.
4.If our ticket is in Waiting List one can't enter the reserved coaches.
5.Reservation can be cancelled even after the departure of the train and if confirmed tickets are cancelled then 50% refund will be given and regarding waiting list one would receive the whole amount as refund if cancelled in advance.
6.The Railway Reservation counters works from 8am to 8pm on week days and till 2pm on Sundays.

Detail Information about Tatkal Schemes

Due to busy schedule and nature of work it might be difficult for an Individual to book Railway tickets in right time and with analysis of these issues Indian Railways has Introduced a new scheme called Tatkal Booking were the number of Late comers are being benefited. Tattkal can also be called as Emergency Reservation Schemes and applicable to more than 100 trains running in India. With effect from 01/08/2009 the traveller can book his ticket two days before the actual date of his journey. The opening of Tatkal bookings will be from 8am at the respective counters.

Tatkal Reservation Charges

The booking towards Tatkal Charges has been fixed as a percentage of fares. For second class it would be of about 10% of basic fare and with 30% of basic fare for all other classes. The below charges will be applicable uniformly both in peak and non peak periods.

Coach Type(in Rs)- Minimum Tatkal Charges (in Rs)- Maximum Tatkal Charges

Second (Sitting) - 10 - 15
Sleeper - 75 - 150
AC Chair Car - 75 - 150
AC 3 Tier - 200 - 300
AC 2 Tier - 200 - 300
Executive - 200 - 300

Points to Remember before Tatkal Booking

1.Tatkal Bookings are not permitted in First AC class.
2.There is no need of Identity proofs in Tatkal Schemes.
3.There is no option in getting Ladies and Gents quota in Tatkal quotas.
4.Tatkal quota must be checked in advance for its availability in specific trains, class and locations.
5.In Tatkal booking no conessions are allowed even to senior citizen.
6.The delivery time of Tatkal and Normal regular Tickets remains the same.
7.No name change option is allowed in Tatkal bookings.
8.Tatkal Reservations are being opted till the preparation of chart of journey for the day.
9.On cancellation of non conformed Tatkal tickets one would receive 25% of total fare charged.
10.The cancellation towards Tatkal tickets can be made upto 24 hrs before schedule time of departure and no refund would be granted on the confirmed Tatkal tickets if cancelled within 24 hrs of the scheduled departure time of the respective train.

Recent changes in Tatkal Booking Systems

The Railway booking towards Tatkal schemes has been taken into consideration and the number of days for booking tickets has been reduced. It was noted that several misuse and complaints regarding the booking of Tatkal and complaints about agents could be witnessed and due this factors the railways department has decided to make a change over to current Talkkal booking systems.

As per the information given by the Railway minister the current changes towards the Tatkal scheme will be implemented with a week's time. Previously the agents who book Tatkal tickets have been restricted to one hour from opening of Tatkal bookings and presently it has been change to two hours so the public would be benefited to book their tickets till agents allotted timings. Due to current changes the agents won't be able to book their tickets from 8am to 10 am and if booked tickets are cancelled there will be no refund of money.

The Railway department said there will be only refund of tickets if there is any cancellation or delay in respective trains. Moreover only if valid proofs are being submitted Tatkal tickets can be booked and only 4 members can travel in a booked ticket. This scheme was specially designed and taken into consideration in order to reduce several clever tricks handled towards booking of tickets and also in selling tickets at higher rates. As per the scheme there will be no issue of duplicate tickets and in exception cases on payment of full fare including Tatkal charges. The Railway department has also decided to identify misuse of booking schemes with implementation of special monitoring systems with CTV camera to be installed in all corners near the counters.

Information System adopted towards Tatkal Booking Systems

In order to reduce the misuse towards Tatkal booking the Indian Railways has decided to find a permanent solution with adaptation of latest Information Technology towards its booking. With this scheme under implementation the name of Ticket issuing authority and their counts of issued tickets could be updated immediately to the higher authority. Moreover a number of agents have tie up with the ticket issuing authority and in order to break it and make the public benefited the immediate information up date of tickets to the higher authority would definitely find out a solution towards tickets misuse.

According to the information received from Indian Railway authority Information Technology Department (CRIS) the issue of Tatkal ticket will be measured and with BRS counter clock the number of tickets issued per minutes will be immediately updated into the system of the higher authority. The department has also informed that if more than 3 tickets are being booked after opening of the counter then if required verification will be carried out.

Moreover this would be the excellent scheme introduced by Indian Railways and this scheme would find it success only if proper authority views and takes respective action towards the people at right time in a right manner. Let's wait and watch further for their latest updates and news regarding the implementation of new systems.