Indian Railways introduced new guidelines for booking of Tatkal tickets

Amidst the increasing number of reports of the misuse of tatkal scheme, the Indian Railways on 9 July 2012 introduced new guidelines for booking of Tatkal tickets. Under the new guideline the Railways revised the time for booking the tatkal tickets to 10am from earlier 8am.

Besides, under the new scheme, agents will not be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from 10am to 12pm either from the ticket counter or on the internet. Some zones will be provided the facility of separate Tatkal ticket counters while, others will issue Tatkal tickets from the same counters between 10 am to 10:30 am.

Several other measures have also been introduced under the new tatkal scheme, which includes;

•  Individual users can not book more than two tickets from 10 am to 12 noon.

•  Quick book option and cash card option will remain inactive between 10 am and 12 pm

•  Installation of CCTVs in major booking centres,

•  Booking clerks barred from carrying cellphones inside counters,

•  Display of helpline numbers

•  Expansion of the e-ticket handling capacity of Railways website through short-term and long-term measures

•  Server capacity to be increased from 3.5 lakh bookings to about 5 lakh bookings per day in about four months, which will eventually be increased to about 8 lakh bookings a day.