Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) To curb the activities of touts at Tatkal ticket booking counters, the railways Friday reduced the advance reservation period from 48 hours to 24 hours and said no refund will be made on confirmed tickets.

Among the other steps taken by the railways to control the activities of touts include stopping issuance of duplicate Tatkal ticket, giving Tatkal ticket only to people carrying identity proof, restricting booking of tickets between 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and ultimately linking the facility with Aadhaar, the unique identification number being provided to the citizens by the government.

“Tatkal is a facility for emergency travel…It is meant for unplanned travel. But we have reports touts are misusing it by blocking berths,” Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi told reporters.

Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal said: “The steps will come in force in around a week’s time.”

Citing reasons for the steps, Mittal said these have been taken with a view to prevent misuse of Tatkal scheme by agents/unscrupulous elements during opening hours of the reservation counters.

The move to stop refund on confirmed Tatkal tickets has been taken as advance reservation period is very short, around a day, said officials.

Further they said Tatkal tickets shall be sold only on production of one of the eight prescribed cards as proof of identity. During the journey, the passenger has to produce original proof of identity indicated on the ticket.

In future, when Aadhaar is operational, the issuance of Tatkal tickets will be linked to it.

The officials said the restriction between 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. shall be enforced through frequent inspection at the counters.

Besides, there shall be only four passengers per PNR for Tatkal tickets.

The web services agents of IRCTC will be permitted to book only one Tatkal ticket per train per day on the internet.

Cameras will be installed at the ticket counters for maintaining stricter surveillance.