Index
- Introduction
- What is Tatkal Booking?
- What is Premium Tatkal Booking?
- How to book a Premium Tatkal Ticket?
Introduction
Indian Railways is one of the biggest train networks in the world, with a route length of 67368 km. It provides facilities for every economic status in India. It is an affordable familiar means of transportation. What is a bummer in this flawless system is reservations. Indian Railways is always in demand, so getting a ticket depends on a first-come, first-served basis. But what if someone has an emergency? Indian Railways caters to every situation; that is why they have the Tatkal Scheme. In this article, we will talk about the Premium Tatkal scheme and how it works.
What is Tatkal Scheme?
Tatkal booking is a reservation facility provided by the Indian Railways that lets you book your ticket on short notice. The Indian railways have introduced it in every form of reserved class and on almost every train. There are two modes of bookings, one is online, and the other is offline. In the online mode, you can visit the official website of IRCTC, and for offline mode, you can book the ticket from a railway station ticket counter.
The ticket window for the tatkal reservation opens at 10 am one day before the boarding date. So if you want to board the train on the 5th, you will have to book your ticket on the 4th. Sometimes if you’re going to board a train which origins on the 4th and you are going to board it on 5th from your station, then you will have to book your ticket on the 3rd. In conclusion, you book your ticket on the day of the chart preparation.
The window for AC reservations is opened at 10 am, and for Non AC reservations, the window opens at 11 am. There are no special trains for tatkal; there are reserved tatkal seats on every train, which are always left for tatkal passengers. The seats which are not booked under tatkal are given to the waiting list passengers. You can cancel a confirmed tatkal ticket, but you will receive no refund. The tatkal tickets which are on the waiting list get returns.
What is Premium Tatkal?
In October 2014, Premium Tatkal was introduced by the Indian Railways, which covers at least 50% of the tickets on select trains. The facility of premium tatkal can only be availed in the online mode. The scheme was launched with 80 trains at first as an experiment. The tatkal and premium tatkal ticketing and booking are similar, but the cost of premium tatkal is double the price of the regular tatkal ticket. The child fare costs the same as an adult in premium tatkal.
How to book a Premium Tatkal ticket?
The facility of Premium Tatkal does not apply on every train. Before booking, you should check whether the train has premium tatkal or not. For a premium tatkal booking, you can follow the steps below:
- Enter IRCTC on google and press enter. You will see the website and visit the official website of IRCTC.
- Log into your IRCTC account using your username and password.
- You will see an option of “Plan My Travel”, there you will have two fields’fields’ from station” and ”to station”. Enter the information.
- Next, you will have to provide the date of your journey and submit all the information. You will see a list of trains.
- Select the Premium Tatkal option and then click on the select quota button that will show the train with Premium Tatkal tickets.
- Select the train according to your convenience; the earlier you book, the lower will be the fare.
- The form will ask for your ID information, so give your original ID proof.
- To stay safe, take the print of the e-ticket you receive in the mail.
The agents of the tatkal facilities were misusing the facility of the premium tatkal. The IRCTC agents cannot book any reservation until 30 mins after the window opens at 10 am for AC reservations, and 11 am for Non Ac classes.
