RailEnquiry

Clueless,they queued for rly tickets

Counters Open At 10am Under New Improved Tatkal System

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Booking of Tatkal tickets under the new railway guidelines kicked off on Tuesday.But chaos prevailed at the reservation counters at the City and Cantonment stations.People seemed to be clueless about the 8am timing being deferred by two hours and ended up flocking the counters at the crack of dawn.
Earlier,Tatkal reservations used to open at 8am for trains leaving the next day.Though technically they remained open through the day,the tickets used to get over in a jiffy.
The railways had introduced a slew of measures amid increasing complaints about misuse of the Tatkal scheme and tout trouble.
Under the new system,Tatkal tickets will be sold between 10am and 12 noon.Tokens will be issued at the entrance between 10 am and 11 am for people to queue up before the counters.Besides,all counters will issue only Tatkal tickets between 10am and 10.30am.
There will be no general booking during these 30 minutes,officials said.
An official release from the South Western Railway has also banned agents of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC ),Rail Travellers' Agents (RTA) and Rail Travellers Service Agents (RTSA) from booking Tatkal tickets during these two hours.
Though the railways had given adequate publicity in the media about the upcoming new system,railway ticket seekers seemed to be completely in the dark.
I learnt about the changes when the railway cops asked for formation of a separate Tatkal queue at 10am.But the inconvenience is that there is no general ticket sale from 10 am to 10.30 am, said James Aimal,resident of Bangalore.
It was a hassle-free experience for those who knew of the new guidelines.I came at 10.10am as I knew about the changes.I am happy that the wait time has reduced, said Mukesh Purohit,resident of Mumbai.He said the scene was better in Bangalore than in Mumbai.
Railway officials will monitor the situation.

TOUTS OUT


I came to the station
early as I didnt know about the new timings.Not many hassles under the new system.No touts were allowed.Everyone had to show their ID cards to be allowed inside.

Manjeshwara Babu | PASSENGER AT THE STATION



NEW GUIDELINES



Tatkal tickets sale:

10am to Noon

Issuance of tokens:

10am to 11am No general booking,counters will issue only Tatkal tickets: 10am to 10.30am Carry ID proof No agents will be allowed inside reservation offices


IN A FIX: Though the railways had publicized about the new system in the media,many were caught unawares on Tuesday morning