Railways limits `Tatkal’ booking time to one day

The Railways has reduced the time for booking of reserved seats / berths under the `Tatkal' scheme to one day prior to the journey, in a bid to ensure that those who need to travel by trains on short notice benefit from the scheme.

The revised scheme, effective today, has been introduced to eliminate the possibility of booking of tickets by touts / miscreants through `Tatkal' scheme and resell them to bona fide passengers against high premium, the railway ministry said in a release.

''The advance reservation period (ARP) of `Tatkal' scheme is reduced from two days to one day, excluding the day of journey, from the train originating station, with effect from Monday (21 November 2011),'' an official release said.

Accordingly, the release said, ''if a train is to depart from the originating station on the second of the month, the Tatkal quota for that particular train will open at 08.00 hrs on the first of the month.''

Agents /rail travel service agencies (RTSAs) will henceforth not be allowed to book `Tatkal' tickets at the counters between 08.00 hrs and 10.00 hrs on the opening day of `Tatkal' advance reservation facility. RTSA opted `Tatkal' booking in normal counters also will not be allowed between 08.00 hrs and 10.00 hrs on the opening day of Tatkal for booking with train starting date falling beyond 22 November 2011.

Tatkal booking facility will be limited to four passengers per ticket form now.