Tatkal ticket bookings resume; a sigh of relief to railway passengers

In a big relief to train passengers, the Indian Railways has resumed bookings of Tatkal tickets for all 230 special trains from June 29, a service that was stopped in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Railways had suspended passenger, mail and express trains during the nationwide lockdown from March 25.

A senior Railway Ministry official said here that the public was made aware on May 31 that the Tatkal quota facility could be availed in all special trains from June 29 onwards.

"Tatkal bookings were done on Monday for trains commencing from Tuesday," he said.

Bookings under Tatkal quota are done a day before the train journey post 10 am for AC seats, and post 11 am for sleeper class seats.

Last month, before running the 200 pairs of special trains, the Railways had resumed 30-day advance bookings at railway station reservation counters.

The Railways had also said that reservation against cancellation (RAC) tickets and waiting-list tickets will be issued in these trains but waitlisted passengers will not be allowed to board the trains.

The Railways is currently operating 230 special trains across the country and these would be the only trains operating after July 1 as in an earlier announcement the Railways had cancelled all regular trains scheduled between July 1 and August 12.

A Ministry spokesperson had earlier said that the advance reservation period for the 30 Special Rajdhani and 200 special mail and express trains had been increased from 30 days to 120 days, giving passengers more time to plan their journeys.