Railways tighten ‘tatkal’ scheme to prevent misuse

The railway ministry on Friday announced new measures to curb the misuse of its 'tatkal' scheme, under which it sets aside berths for emergency bookings. Perhaps the most important of these is that bookings under the scheme will be available only one day in advance of the journey date, excluding the day of travel, from the two days at present.

Further, there will be no refund on confirmed tatkal tickets, except in exceptional circumstances like cancellation of trains or late running of connecting trains.

Announcing this in New Delhi today, railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said, ''We found out that regular journeys were taking place on tatkal. But the idea is that the scheme be used by passengers in an emergency.

Tatkal booking is a source of earning for the railways, but this is not the way we would like to earn money. We are putting in restrictions for the benefit of passengers who need to actually travel in an emergency.''

The ministry has also announced steps to prevent the system being hijacked by the touts and unauthorised agents, which is a frequent complaint. At New Delhi station, as in many other cities, touts openly hang around booking offices offering tatkal tickets within an hour of the train's departure – for a premium.

The new rules – which Trivedi said would be implemented within 10 days – will require the person purchasing the ticket to provide an identity card photocopy, which will be attached with the reservation requisition slip at the time of booking. The final reservation chart will display such identity card numbers.

Identity details will have to be provided even if booking a ticket online. Also, only four seats will be booked against one PNR (booking number) in tatkal, against six in normal bookings.

In a final stipulation, the ministry will prevent travel agents from booking tatkal tickets across counters or on the internet between 8 am and 10 am. The ministry had already stopped agents from tatkal bookings before 9 am – an hour after the counters open – and has now increased the block period by an hour.