IRCTC Allows Tatkal Ticket Booking With New Rules

Finally, Indian Railways has re-started what public was requesting for quite a few days- tatkal tickets. The bookings will now be opened for all the IRCTC special trains that are running now, and the new trains that will start running from June 1. Though most of the booking process is the same, IRCTC has changed some rules which passengers need to know.

What’s new in ticket booking?

The website address and process of filling the ticket form are the same as that of old regular time-tabled trains. But, IRCTC has now decided to change the booking timings.

Earlier, the tatkal bookings used to start at 11:00 am for non-ac seats, and 10:00 am for ac seats. But after May 31, the official website of IRCTC – www.irctc.co.in – will be opened for tatkal booking as early as 08:00 am. Parcel and luggage bookings will be done as they used to be done earlier.

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Since the start of nationwide lockdown, tatkal bookings were closed. Talking to the media, a senior officer at the Piyush Goyal lead Railway Ministry said, “All these special trains will have reserved coaches, but we have now decided to allow for tatkal ticket bookings. Premium Tatkal ticket booking feature exists in some trains and will be allowed in these special trains too if the train regularly has that feature.”

A number of special AC trains were started by IRCTC from May 12 to migrate people who were stranded at different places due to lockdown.

Initially, the ticket bookings of these trains were allowed to be done only through the official IRCTC website or the IRCTC mobile app. Then the ticket bookings were also opened on railway station counters and post offices. Once the wheels started to roll on, IRCTC is getting the standard procedure back on track.

What More?

Right now, only 30 trains are running throughout the country. All these special trains are run with Rajdhani-style services. But after May 31, 200 more special trains will start running.

The list of 200 IRCTC special trains will include many Janshatabdi trains, Duronto Express trains, and other Mail/Express trains. Even the general and sleeper class coaches will only have reserved seats on these trains. No person can board any train without a pre-reserved ticket.

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Though the number of these special trains has increased, there is still no talk of regular passenger trains running in the near future. All the previous bookings for regular passenger trains were cancelled with a full refund.

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