We all have faced issues while trying to book train tickets on irctc.co.in during 8am to 9am. Everyone knows this is because the Indian Railways opens its tatkal quota at that time and everyone logs into the site to get their hands on them. From travel agents to people traveling under urgent circumstances, everyone has faced the “Service Unavailable” error page.
IRCTC & Indian Railways are planning to put in the following measures to ensure a smoother ticket booking experience doing 8am to 9am IST:
- Indian Railways has decided to stop Quick Book Option and cash card booking between 8 AM to 9 AM.
- Individual users are permitted to book only two tickets between 8 AM to 9 AM.
- Access to ‘Tatkal’ booking to the agents booking through internet has been denied during the opening hours of reservation in the morning between 8 AM to 9 AM.
- Facility of change of name is not permissible on ‘Tatkal’ tickets.
- The load of IRCTC’s server has been augmented to ensure easy accessibility to passengers booking tickets through internet.
Everything except point number 3 sounds good and practical. I do not think restricting travel agents from booking during the tatkal quota opening time is a wise move as there are many genuine travelers who might not know how to book tickets online (or not have a computer & internet connection at all) and rely on travel agents to book tickets for them. They will not either have to learn how to book the tickets themselves or go to a railway reservation counter. Both of which sound really difficult to implement. Also, agents might also end up creating multiple accounts on the website and charge such people a premium for booking their tickets through a standard non-travel agent login.
Nonetheless, lets hope that this move helps in easing out the ticket booking process in due course of time.
[via PluggdIn]
