Title - tackling toutkal

New Tatkal rules from today: Sales start at 10am
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Amid increasing complaints about misuse of the Tatkal scheme, the railways has introduced a slew of measures that will come into effect from Tuesday.
    Under the revised scheme, passengers can book Tatkal tickets from 10am instead of 8am.
    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.
    The revised scheme comes in the backdrop of an increasing number of complaints from passengers about cornering of the bulk of tickets by touts, who then sell them at a premium.
    Measures such as installation of CCTVs in major booking centres, barring booking clerks from carrying cellphones inside counters, display of helpline numbers as well as raids by vigilance squads, have been taken, said the official.
    The railways will also augment the e-ticket handling capacity of its website through shortterm and long-term measures.
    The server capacity will be increased from 3.5 lakh bookings to about 5 lakh bookings per day in about four months, which will eventually be increased to about 8 lakh bookings a day.
    The move comes after TOI ran a series of stories highlighting the difficulties faced by passengers in trying to book Tatkal tickets.
    toireporter@timesgroup.com