Title - NWR set to make tatkal scheme tout-free

Jaipur: Officials of the North Western Railways (NWR) have set up special teams to monitor the tatkal ticketing system from 10 am to 12 noon to keep touts and railway agents at bay.
    To ensure a cent percent compliance of the directives of the railway ministry, the special teams are deputed at the various railway stations including Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur and other divisions of the NWR.
    The railway’s move will streamline the delivery of tickets under tatkal scheme from Tuesday onwards.
    Earlier, tatkal counters used to open from 8 am onwards for booking tickets in advance in which both passengers and railway agents were entertained. In that process, the agents generally exhausted all the tickets and needy passengers were deprived.
    “Now the time of opening of the tatkal window and booking such tickets online would be from 10 am. During the 10 am to 12 pm period, no agent having ID cards of Indian Railways Travel and Catering Corporation (IRCTC) would be entertained. He can book tickets for his family but cannot do so for his clients with the new system,” a senior officer of the commercial section of NWR said.
    The NWR authorities held several meetings to ensure that the new system works flawlessly. “It is a computerized system in which tatkal tickets cannot be booked before 10 am. But for us, we have made teams of officials who will monitor the process to ensure cent percent compliance,” said Lalit Bohara, chief public relations officer of NWR, on Monday. He said reservation clerks have been asked to be vigilant to identify railway agents in the queue and depriving the common passengers.
    “We have made arrangements at the reservation counters for orderly implementation of the amendment in the scheme like segregation of tatkal buyers through separate queues and separate counters,” he said.