Here is a good news for all those who use Indian Railways as their primary mode of transportation. Tatkal booking has just been made easy for the common man. To increase the chances of common man getting a Tatkal ticket, the Indian railway ministry has taken this much appreciated decision - travel agents / any web agents will not be given access to the Indian Railways site during the first hour of the Tatkal booking.
What does it mean for the travel agents?
There are lots of travel agents spread across India making their living by reserving tickets on Indian railways. They typically charge somewhere between 20 and100 INR extra per ticket based on the distance and the service class of the journey. They have the option to book the tickets in bulk and with that the limited number of Tatkal seats get over real fast. Indian Railways move will definitely be a big blow to this section of people.
What does it mean for you and me?
- Indian Railways site will not be bombarded with huge number of requests from the travel agents. Thus, the site will have increased accessibility from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM for e-Ticket booking. (Though, I have the strong feeling that Indian Railways should improve their infra-structure. They should try to use the infrastructure services of some of the leading players like Amazon)
- Bulk booking options at the major reservation centers also have been denied for the first hour of Tatkal booking.
- This is a good positive sign that Indian Railways is trying to address the ticket booking woes of its passengers.
Plan your travel well in advance and let those who are really in need of
Tatkal tickets get them. For improving your chances of Tatkal ticket booking and some tips, check this.
Source : The Economic Times
Source : The Economic Times
-- Varun
From when is this coming to effect na?
ReplyDeleteIts already in place from last wednesday (14-July-2010)
ReplyDeleteWow this is such a good news :) it wud be really useful for ppl like me :P
ReplyDeleteEvery Problem has a solution. And every solution has a hidden problem. :)
ReplyDeleteNow after this change by irctc, I'm noticing 1 thing. Earlier the tickets were available till 8:20 or 8:25 but now it is getting over by 8:07 or 8:08. As the site becomes faster, the agents also become clever and booking it really fast (using public user ID). So the public users have to go with the speed of the site.
Over time, we will definitely see some new issues from a diff sector of people.
Anyways I'm happy with this change as I'm able to book a tatkal ticket by on dot 8:02. :)
Hmmm.. I doubt if travel agents can use public user id to book tickets... IRCTC online booking asks for name and ID verfication is done at the time of boarding naa. i suppose no one will be willing to get that tickets...
ReplyDelete