Railways change Tatkal scheme.....

[karira]

Our Indian Railways have found new ways to increase revenue.....wonder why the scheme should be called tatkal, it should be rechristened as semi-tatkal.

Railway Board Circular No.76, dt.28.9.2007:
---
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
RAILWAY BOARD
*****
No.2007/TG.I/ 20/P/Tatkal New Delhi, dated: 28 /09/2007
The Chief Commercial Managers,
All Zonal Railways.
The Managing Director,
IRCTC,
9th Floor, Bank of Baroda Building,
16, Parliament Street,
New Delhi - 110 001.
MD/CRIS,
Chankyapuri,
New Delhi - 110 021.
Sub: Amendment in Tatkal Scheme.
-----
(Commercial Circular No. 76 of 2007)
With a view to improve Tatkal utilisation in those trains in which the
utilisation of Tatkal accommodation is less than 50% in sleeper class on an
average for the whole financial year and to save the botheration of general Wait
Listed passengers to go to reservation counter again to book berths under Tatkal
scheme, it has been decided to give Wait Listed passengers of such trains an
opportunity to opt for booking under Tatkal Quota at the time of buying their
waitlist ticket itself even before start of the advance reservation period of Tatkal
booking for that train. The procedure will be as under:-
(i) CRIS has been asked for making a provision in the software so that
whenever waitlist starts in such trains an appropriate message should
come up on the screen so that the booking clerk can ask the passenger
whether he/she would like to avail the option of Tatkal scheme.
(ii) If the passenger gives the option as "YES", the fares, including Tatkal
Charges, will be charged (without giving any concession except Children
ticket). An indication will be given against the names of such passengers
that Tatkal charges have been collected on such tickets. The booking of
such passengers will be allowed upto 50% of Tatkal accommodation
earmarked in the particular class of the train. The willingness of the
passenger should be obtained on the requisition slip also.
(iii) On the opening day of Tatkal reservation for that particular date, first
such passengers will be given confirmed accommodation out of Tatkal
quota and thereafter rest of the Tatkal accommodation will be made
available for booking by general public. Thus, 50% of the Tatkal quota
will be utilised for such passengers. Remaining 50% will be utilised for
providing Tatkal accommodation as per ARP. Unutilized Tatkal
accommodation earmarked for such passengers will be reverted to Tatkal
quota on the day of opening of Tatkal reservation as per its ARP.
(iv) In case, such a passenger gets confirmed reservation against normal
cancellation, he can seek refund of Tatkal charges paid by him by
obtaining Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) after depositing his ticket to
Refund Office within 30 days of date of departure of train and prefer
claim for refund within the time period specified for seeking refund of
normal tickets. The Refund Office would verify the position from the
system and grant refund.
(v) In case these passengers want to cancel the ticket before the ARP of the
Tatkal scheme, refund rules for normal reserved tickets will be
applicable. After the opening of Tatkal reservation, since passengers will
be given confirmed accommodation against Tatkal Quota, Tatkal refund
rules will be applicable for such passengers.
(vi) In such trains, there will be no restriction of booking under Tatkal
Scheme and tickets can be booked as are booked in general quota in the
respective trains.
(vii) CRIS will make necessary modification in the software for this purpose
and shall inform the date of implementation to all Zonal Railways and
Board's Office. In the meantime zonal railways may identify the trains
on which this facility is to be provided.
This scheme should be implemented on an experimental basis for a
period of six months and reviewed thereafter on the basis of feedback received.
Zonal Railways may send feedback on this account after four months of
implementation of this scheme.
Necessary instructions may be issued to all concerned under intimation
to this office.
This issues with the concurrence of Finance Directorate of Ministry of
Railways.
(O. P. Chawla)
Director Traffic Commercial (G) - II
Railway Board.
No.2007/TG-I/ 20/P/Tatkal New Delhi, Dated: 28 /09/2007
Copy to:
FA & CAO, All Zonal Railways
Director (Audit) All Zonal Railways
For Financial Commissioner

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[ganpat1956]

This is an outright swindle by the Railways. The concept of Tatlkal which originated as a provision to deal with contingencies of emergency travel requirements is now slowly turning into a money-spinning operation by indirectly fleecing the wait listed passengers. If the utilisation of Tatkal is less than 50% of its allotted quota, then the raliways have to reduce the tatkal quota itself for the train concerned, rather than forcing the waitlisted passengers to pay more.

[chanda_s]

yes this appears to be a step in the direction of making profits. if tatkal quota is not utilised, the simple thing is to transfer it to the general quota as was being done till now. the new move will only complicate things and make the wait listed passenger cough up more money.

further, getting a refund is a painful process that consumes a lot of time and energy and a normal passenger would be put to great discomfort.

[colnrkurup]

Though this site does not allow the topic 'corruption' kindly allow me to point out that the new system is corruption prone. Following are my reasons:
1. All the stations are not having computerised reservation out of which few of them do have reservation quota. Their position will not be found reflected in the message indicating start of waitinglist coming in the computer screen. This will reach a cituation where even when the computer show commencement of waiting list, reservaton might be available in the nearby non-commputerised station. I had availed this facility myself few months back
2. Last minute surrender after preparation of the chart will not be known
3. As I had broughtr out in one of my earlier posts, such last minute surrender, surrender bynon-computerised stations after the laid down period, unavailed lapsed berths etc., will go into the Kitty of the TTE. He knows the pattern and plan his modus of operandii accordingly.
4. Since the renewed rate of wait listed tickets (of those opting for tatkal) will be high the TTE can confidentially give a refund receipt of tatkal charges of a wait listed (tatkal) passenger at the bottom for a consideration ignoring the wait-list on top. No one including the Wait-list No.1 will come to know of it.The savings could be shared between the bottom wait listed passenger and theTTE
5. There is a provision that "senior cityzen could get tickets for reserved compartment with a seal "subject of availability of accommodation" affixed at his own risk. In case there is no vacant accommodation he looses the diferance in fare between the unreserved class and the reserved class. But he can entrain the compartment as he is holding a valid ticket. When the train leave the station no one including those in the waiting list cannot be in the compartment other than the senior cityzen who may wait at the entrance space.. When at a nearby station a seat fall vaccant due to detraining of a passenger or last minute surrender of seat unless the wait listed person arrive at that station and entrain, that seat can go to the seniuor cityzen only. Presently theTTEs try to shoo away the senior cityzen at some pretex to evade such a cituation. I feel thatthe new system aprt from thefactors broughtin above, is likely to enrich the Corrupt TTEs if any.

[karira]

colnrkurup,

Please be clarified that the Tatkal Scheme is only applicable form the Starting Station of the train and cannot be availed of from the in route stations. Some of your points are no longer valid considering this fact.

[colnrkurup]

I think that it canbe availed from any station to any station in the route; but the train-fare to be paid is from the starting station. I can travel by Thatkal from Tellicherry to Ernakulam in Mangalore-Trivandrum Express by paying the fare from Mangalore to Trivandrum. I had availed it once

[karira]

colnrkurup,

Yes, you are correct if the fare is paid from the train originating station.

[colnrkurup]

This exactly is the reason for the revised procedure to become more corruptionprone. The diference in fair from two enroute stations in Tatkal and normal being veryhigh the new system has become more attractive to the TTEs. Earlier this opportunity wasnot available to the TTEs.

[vivek]

Tatkal scheme is introduced to book the ticket for required users. To know about the Tatkal scheme you can login to Indian Trains: Check ticket fare - availability, Find Trains - Stations.

The better way to search Indian trains looks great and it open fast, no pop-up, user friendly. Every information in a single page. This concept is good and some of the features like calendar, train running day has not come in a single website in this reviews. the most important features i have seen in this site that if the user does not know the station code then also he can see all the trains and it is only website which have a drop menu box for the important station from where you can choose the station name and also it has a date calendar from you can choose the date and it show the running day of the train so that you can know which day of the week this train is running. the other most important feature I have seen in this website that it show the train which does not have the reservation coach for the benefit of the user and they are showing the passenger train also which is also not available in any website. This site will enable the users to search train route and compare fares of most of the trains in India.

[yayathee]

is the railway has reduced the general quota and increased the tatkal quota without increasing the allowed number of seats for a train, for earning more money for the same ticket by selling it on tatkal basis.