What is Tatkal service?

Tatkal service is a boon to many passengers traveling by Indian railways. It means immediate and instant tickets to be provided to help passengers book tickets during an emergency The railways earn a premium on such Tatkal quota tickets.

The booking o Tatkal tickets as easy and can be done online by e-ticket as well as from the conventional reservation counters. However the booking for Tatkal seats start only 2 days before the date of journey, excluding the date of journey. For a journey on 16th you can book in Tatkal at the earliest by 11th of that month. Tatkal booking starts at 8: am in line at the regular counter reservation hours.

In earlier days there used to be special coaches allotted called as Tatkal coaches attached to some identified trains. Of late the way tatkal reservation concept is managed has changed a lot. Nowadays there are no Tatkal coaches attached, instead a specific no of seats are set aside in regular coaches as Tatkal quota seats.

For 2A class compartments 4 berths pr coach are kept aside as Tatkal quota. Similarly for 3A compartments there are 6 berths kept aside and for AC Chair car too 6 berths per coach are made available to the passengers. The largest no is for the 2nd class sleeper with 10% of the available seats reserved as Tatkal. There is no Tatkal scheme available for the 1A class. If the Tatkal quota is not filled up, it is released to the waitlisted passengers as usual for no premium cost.

To obtain the Tatkal   service in addition the regular tickets ticket fares and the reservation fee one has to pay an additional premium to use the service. The Indian Railways have classified the premium into two categories according to the season. The Non -Peak period of 3 months (February, March and August) and the rest of the nine months are the Peak Period.

There are a few more riders attached to this quota. Since this is an exclusively kept quota, one has to reserve the tickets for the entire journey of the train. So if your journey is shorter than the train’s journey you still need to pay for those extra distances too. For cancellations for tickets made available from Tatkal service you lose 25% of the fare in addition to the premium, that is only if you cancel 24hrs before the departure of the trains.

In any case the Indian railways are well-known for changing rules and improving features on a regular basis. It is highly recommendable to check the websites for the latest and accurate details.

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