Railway Tatkal Ticket Booking Timing Revised in an effort to ensure Tatkal train tickets reach the common man.

From Today, July 10, the new guidlines for booking Tatkal railway tickets have been introduced by Indian Railways from 10.00 am onwards.

The revised scheme comes in into effect after an increasing number of complaints came from passengers about cornering of the bulk of tickets by touts, who then sell them at a premium.

Under the revised scheme, passengers can book Tatkal tickets from 10am instead of 8am.

“No normal ticket will be issued during this time unless there is no passenger for the Tatkal tickets,” an Eastern Railway release said.

Eastern Railway spokesperson Samir Goswami said Tatkal tickets cannot be booked on internet reservation system during the special time of 10-10.30 am for next day trains.

No authorized agents, including those of IRCTC, will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from 10am to 12pm over the counter as well as on the internet.

While some zones will have separate counters for these tickets, others will issue Tatkal tickets from the same counters; they will provide only Tatkal tickets from 10am-10.30am, said a senior railway ministry official.

Other measures taken by railways include installation of CCTVs at major booking centres, barring booking clerks from carrying cellphones inside counters, display of helpline numbers as well as raids by vigilance squads,etc.

The railways will also augment the e-ticket handling capacity of its website through short-term and long-term measures.

High capacity database servers have been installed to make tatkal ticket online booking easier.

Web service agents have been permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day on the internet only after 12 noon. Individual users can now book only two tickets between 10 am and 12 noon

An IT-Anti Fraud Squad has been created. A complaint cell has also been set up. One can email or call these numbers: agentcomplaint@irctc.co.in (011-23745962) or care@irctc.co.in (011-39340000).