Title - Smooth Ride: More trains, pink Tatkal forms this festive season

To tide over the festival rush and check the misuse of Tatkal bookings, Northern Railway on Thursday 62 special trains would be introduced and passengers have to fill a new reservation form to book Tatkal tickets.A pink form will have to be filled by the passenger at the booking counters to provide details such as address, contact number and identity. At present, there is no separate requisition form for booking Tatkal tickets.A set of warnings, including deboarding at the next station, imposition of fine or imprisonment in accordance with provisions of the Railways Act — if the address and other details furnished are found to be false — will be printed on the new form.Northern Railway General Manager V K Gupta said more than 500,000 personal IDs and 44,000 IDs created by agents have been deactivated since February last year by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) anti-fraud team to check misuse of the ticketing service.Early this year, the timing of Tatkal bookings counters was changed from 8 am to 10 am.Gupta said 62 special trains would be run this festive season. Other than deployment of officials to ensure crowd management at the stations, elaborate security arrangements have been made, he said.The festival arrangements include timely placement of rakes on platforms and checking for touts cornering seats in unreserved coaches.

“Jammers have been installed to stop the misuse of mobile phones in reservation halls at IRCA Sarojini Nagar, Kakardooma, Delhi Junction, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Shahdara, Noida and Ghaziabad. Officers, inspectors and supervisors will be deputed at stations. They will sign the first 15 requisition slips of Tatkal passengers to ensure that first-come-first-serve system is not violated,” a statement says.