Tatkal Reservation

Tatkal Reservation

Tatkal Scheme

With a view to provide reservation to those passengers who have to undertake journey at short notice and to save such passengers from the clutches of unscrupulous elements/touts, Tatkal Reservation Scheme was initially introduced in December, 1997. Initially this scheme was available only in around 110 trains and mainly in Sleeper Class. At that time an extra coach was to be attached for this purpose. This scheme was thoroughly revised in August 2004 and some modifi cations were made from time to time. The salient features of this scheme as on date are as under:-

A. Tatkal booking for AC classes opens at 1000 hours on the previous day of journey excluding date of journey from the train originating station. For non-AC classes, Tatkal booking starts at 1100 hours on the previous day of journey excluding date of journey from the train originating station. For example, if train is to depart from the originating station on the second of the month, the Tatkal quota for that particular train shall open at 1000/1100 hours on the fi rst of the month.

B. The reservation under this scheme is available only upto the time of preparation of charts. At the time of preparation of charts, the vacant Tatkal accommodation is released to the RAC/waitlisted passengers and no Tatkal charges are realised from such passengers.

C. The facility of change of name is not permitted on the bookings made under Tatkal scheme.

D. No duplicate Tatkal tickets are issued. Duplicate Tatkal tickets are issued only in exceptional cases on payment of full fare including Tatkal charges.

E. The reservation under this scheme can be sought by full fare paying passengers only and no passenger holding concessional ticket is allowed to avail reservation under this scheme.

F. In case of tickets booked under Tatkal scheme, during the journey, one of the passengers booked on that ticket is required to produce any one of the prescribed proof of identity mentioned below (in original), failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket are considered as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly:-

i. Voter Photo Identity Card issued by Election Commission of India.
ii. Passport
iii. PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department
iv. Driving Licence issued by RTO
v. Photo Identity Card issued by Central /State Government
vi. Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized School/College for their students
vii. Nationalised Bank Passbook with photograph and
viii. Credit Cards issued by Banks with laminated photograph.
ix. Unique Identifi cation Card “Aadhar “.
x. Photoidentity card shaving serial number issued by Public Sector Undertakings of State/Central Government, District Administrations, Municipal bodies and Panchayat Administrations.

G. Keeping in view the short Advance Reservation Period and with a view to make this scheme economically unviable for unscrupulous elements/touts, refund rules of the scheme have been made stringent in which no refund is granted on the confirmed Tatkal tickets. However, full refund of fare and Tatkal charges is granted on the tickets booked under Tatkal scheme under certain circumstances like non-attachment of coach, cancellation of train, as explained below:-

i. If the train is delayed by more than 3 hours at the journey originating point of the passenger & not the boarding point if the passenger’s journey originating point and boarding point are different.
ii. If the train is to run on a diverted route and passenger is not willing to travel.
iii. If the train is to run on diverted route and boarding station or the destination or both the stations are not on the diverted route.
iv. In case of non attachment of coach in which Tatkal accommodation has been earmarked and the passenger has not been provided accommodation in the same class.
v. If the party has been accommodated in lower class and does not want to travel. In case the party travels in lower class, the passenger will be given refund of difference of fare and also the difference of Tatkal charges, if any.

H. Tatkal charges have been fi xed as a percentage of fare at the rate of 10% of basic fare for second class and 30% of basic fare for all other classes subject to minimum and maximum as given in the table below:-

I. Tatkal tickets are issued subject to the applicable distance restrictions.

J. All authorised ticketing agents of Indian Railways/IRCTC have been restricted from booking Tatkal tickets at the counters between 1000 hours and 1030 hours for tickets in AC classes and between 1100 hours and 1130 hours for non-AC classes.

K. It is possible to book a maximum of only four passengers per PNR for Tatkal tickets.

L. The web services agents of IRCTC have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day on the internet.

M. Powers for earmarking of Tatkal accommodation in different classes have been delegated to Zonal Railways who take a decision in this regard keeping in view the utilization pattern in that class during the previous fi nancial year as well as availability of accommodation. The accommodation so earmarked, however, in no case exceed the maximum Tatkal accommodation
permissible to be earmarked as per extant instructions, which is as under:-

N. Out of the total berth potential of around 13.43 lakhs berths/seats per day, on an average, around 2.34 lakh seats/berths are available for booking under Tatkal every day i.e. approximately 17.39% of the total accommodation.

O. Instructions have also been issued to zonal Railways to introduce Tatkal scheme in the passenger trains in that train/class in which average utilisation during the previous fi nancial year has been more than 60%.

The minimum Tatkal charges prescribed for different classes will be applicable as fl at Tatkal charges. All other conditions applicable to normal Tatkal scheme will be applicable in case of identifi ed passenger trains.

The Up-gradation Scheme

• With a view to optimise the utilisation of available accommodation in train, a scheme to upgrade full-fare paying passengers to the higher class without any extra charge against the available vacant accommodation is available in almost Mail/Express trains.

• The passengers are required to give the option for being considered for upgradation. If no option is given at the time of fi lling up of requisition form, the same is treated as “yes” and passenger(s) can be considered for upgradation.

• The passengers for upgradation are selected automatically (except in cases where the passenger has shown his unwillingness to be upgraded)
  on random basis by the System at the time of preparation of reservation charts.

• All the passengers on a ticket are upgraded together.

• It is not done for block booking transactions.

• If a passenger, who has been upgraded, cancels his ticket, cancellation charges of the original class only are payable. It is advisable to avail the facility (by exercising the option in the affirmative) and always to check the status (coach/ berth numbers) before boarding the train.

Courtesy: Indian Railway

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