Railways plan dedicated counters for Tatkal tickets
By PTI - NEW DELHI
29th June 2012 03:56 PM
-
Plans are afoot to install CCTV cameras at the ticket counters to keep a close watch on Tatkal ticket seekers and making e-reservation more fool-proof. PTI photo
Faced with mounting complaints
of misuse of tatkal scheme, Railways are planning to have
dedicated counters and separate time slots for selling tatkal
tickets.
Plans are afoot to install CCTV cameras at the ticket
counters to keep a close watch on tatkal ticket seekers and
making e-reservation more fool-proof.
"Besides, we have decided to bar booking clerks from
carrying mobile to reservation counters," said Northern
Railway General Manager V K Gupta, while other officers said
the "character of the tatkal scheme will be changed".
Talking to reporters here, Gupta said separate counters
and time slots for tatkal reservation would also be put in
place very soon to prevent touts from misusing the scheme.
His comments come a day after the Railway Board reviewed
the tatkal scheme, which was introduced to help passengers
travelling on emergency. However, there have been increased
complaints that passengers have been unable to exploit the
scheme properly, thanks to the role of touts.
Despite a number of changes carried out in the scheme in
the recent past including reducing the days for reserving
tatkal tickets from five to only one day and barring web-based
agents from booking tickets during the first hours, touts
continued to exploit the scheme, selling tatkal tickets at a
premium.
At present, tatkal scheme is available in around 2677
trains which translates to around 1.71 lakh berths. In
2011-12, earning from the scheme stood at Rs 847 crore.
Post a Comment
Recent Activity
- Japan support sought for Vision 2023
- Rahul aide to pick Nellore MP candidate
- Kerala: PSC guidelines put candidates in a fix
- Dead son's education loan: Bank seeks its pound of flesh
- With Advani visit, Modi begins charm offensive
- Social media goes martial over High Court's marital ruling
- Slum removal scheme tweaked to make it more effective
- Ready to tune in the lord, catch him up on Twitter
- Thousands missing near Kedarnath shrine
- Indian Coast Guards help rescue 26 crew from shipwreck near Yemen
- Tata Motors unveils 8 upgraded models of passenger vehicles
- Flaws in Koodankulam plant
- Army Major captures 'UFO' in Kerala
- Prices of 348 drugs to come down drastically from May 15
- Callgate: Doctors were prime target for Biju, Saritha Nair
- 60 killed in Nigerian village attacks
Comments(1)
The main reason for the rush for as well as misuse of Tatkal scheme is that nearly 50 % of the available berths are reserved for various quotas such as Emergency Quota , for MPs MLAs and other VIP category as well as Tatkal. Most of them remain unused till the last moment till they are released just before chart preparation, or may be later still. We can see that a very large number of RAC/Waitlisted tickets get confirmed at the last moment, keeping the applicants in suspense till then and forcing many of them to go in for costly alternatives like Tatkal, luxury tourist buses or flight. And many will remain vacant after the train has started, leaving room for TTEs to allot at their discretion. If the quotas, including for Tatkal, are reduced to a minimum, the rush for Tatkal and the consequent malpractices by touts, as well as too many people waiting in suspense with RAC/WL tickets till the last moment can be avoided.
Posted by G. Radhakrishnan at 07/01/2012 11:53 Reply to this Report abuse