Tatkal bookings have been a constant point of discussion when it comes to Railway Ticket Booking Reservations. Agents and touts have historically cornered majority of Tatkal bookings and then sold them at much higher prices to train travelers. They were able to take advantage and exploit the Tatkal booking system.
However, IRCTC in recent times have been taking steps to ensure that touts are kept away from the system and normal passengers are able to fairly use the Tatkal booking system.
Here are 9 steps that IRCTC has taken to plug holes into the Tatkal Reservation System
- The timing of opening of reservation of Tatkal tickets has been changed to 10:00 am on the previous day of journey instead of 08:00 hours as per earlier provision. This makes it easier for normal traveler to access the Tatkal booking system.
- Access to Tatkal bookings has been denied to agents both through internet as well as across the computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters between 10:00 am & 12:00 am.
- Captcha has been introduced to check fraudulent booking on internet through automation software.
- Only 2 tickets can be booked per IP address between 10:00 am & 12:00 am to avoid multiple booking from same office/internet café.
- Quick book option and booking on cash card is not allowed between 10:00 am & 12:00 am.
- Individual users can also book only two tickets between 10:00 am & 12:00 am. (This may be restrictive for normal users, but this has been done so that agents don’t login as normal travelers and do multiple bookings)
- No refund is granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets except under special circumstances like cancellation of train, late running of train by more than three hours, etc.
- Duplicate Tatkal tickets are not issued except on payment of full fare.
- Facility of change of name is not available under this scheme.
IRCTC has done well by introducing these steps and touts will not be able to easily game the system. Having said that, there will still be some who may circumvent and take advantage of it.
What’s your take? Anything else IRCTC can do keep the touts away from Tatkal bookings…?
Sir plz inform me that can i book tatkal ticket of 2 child and 1 female by debit card plz inform me prompt.
Atleast Make that site a bit more good and powerful enough to handle the number of users.
Or may be spend a few thousands from the railway budget to build and maintain a better website.
YEAH , THERE IS SOMETHING FOOLPROOF THAT THEY CAN DO. RAN ENOUGH TRAINS THAT TATAKAL SYSTEM WILL BE NEEDED.
Still many of them are cheated and many loo holes are there..People (or) Agents may book in Mobile for more than 2 tickets..Many of real traveler are missed and they are being forced to buy for high price.System is good but irctc website may be taken to new server, which many times it does not opens at all…
Let the ticket pricing be dynamic like in the airlines. So always there will be some tickets available. This will also save railways money crisis.
Yeah, there is something foolproof that they can do. Run enough trains that Tatkal system will not be needed.
They need to get a better site that can handle the traffic….of millions of hit any time…
Please advise on following.
train leaves the starting point on day 1 , reaches boarding point on day 2 . would the tatkal booking for boarding point open on day 0 or day 1?
One of the steps is as “Individual users can also book only two tickets between 10:00 am & 12:00 am”… I am slightly confused from this line, 2 tickets limitation are for only single day or for life time?
please clear my confusion regarding this point as well as limitation related to IP address.
Thanks.
send me Tatkal software
Not sure if this really has worked. Like for eg. let me tell you the scenario that happened today.
Since Tatkal bookings start at 10 am, I logged in at exactly 10 am and found seats available for my travel. But by the time I reached the booking page, the system gave me a message saying ‘Service Not Available’. So I tried to login again, but each time I tried it gave me a ‘Service Not Available’ error till about 12.30. But by that time the tickets that I was looking for were already booked.
Not sure what’s going on over here, but this clearly ain’t right.
http://easytatkal.com
Still many of them are cheated and many loo holes are there..People (or) Agents may book in Mobile for more than 2 tickets..Many of real traveler are missed and they are being forced to buy for high price.System is good but irctc website may be taken to new server, which many times it does not opens at all…
YEAH , THERE IS SOMETHING FOOLPROOF THAT THEY CAN DO. RAN ENOUGH TRAINS THAT TATAKAL SYSTEM WILL BE NEEDED.
Let the ticket pricing be dynamic like in the airlines. So always there will be some tickets available. This will also save railways money crisis.
Atleast Make that site a bit more good and powerful enough to handle the number of users.
Or may be spend a few thousands from the railway budget to build and maintain a better website.
Yeah, there is something foolproof that they can do. Run enough trains that Tatkal system will not be needed.