The tatkal scheme was introduced to help
people get train tickets at short notice. But skyscraping demand and a
stranglehold of touts have meant that even spending a sleepless night at the
reservation counter does not guarantee a confirmed ticket in the morning.
People, many with their families, start queuing up outside reservation counters as early as 7pm the previous evening. The counters open at 8am and all tatkal tickets are sold within minutes. So, even after a 13-hour wait you may return empty-handed.
According to railways sources, about 1.1 lakh tatkal tickets are offered every day. In the first five minutes, the system receives 4.5 lakh requests for tatkal tickets. On certain trains, tickets get sold out in less than a minute.
TOI teams visited different reservation centres early on Monday and found similar scenes of chaos. Those waiting in line were cynical about the system and touts invariably made their way into the queue through various ways.
Travel agents bend rules, hoard 60% Tatkal tickets: Railways
Consider yourself lucky if your attempt to book a Tatkal train ticket succeeds. Railway sources say there are close to nine lakh seekers everyday for 1.1 lakh Tatkal tickets. With air fares soaring and the number of such tickets down to 30 %, emergency travel has become a nightmare for the common man.
Every day, some 4.5 lakh Tatkal requests are logged on the IRCTC website in the first hour (8-9 am). Lakhs of other passengers wait patiently in serpentine queues for hours at stations.
However, where earlier 10 seats in each coach used to be set aside for the Tatkal quota , now only 10% of the seats are reserved.Changesmadeduring former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's tenure have increased the demandsupply gap, sources say.
But the increased difficulty in procuring tickets has benefited travel agents. The railways estimates that around 60 % of Tatkal tickets are procured by agents. This, despite a ban on recognized agents logging onto the IRCTC website during the first two hours.
People, many with their families, start queuing up outside reservation counters as early as 7pm the previous evening. The counters open at 8am and all tatkal tickets are sold within minutes. So, even after a 13-hour wait you may return empty-handed.
According to railways sources, about 1.1 lakh tatkal tickets are offered every day. In the first five minutes, the system receives 4.5 lakh requests for tatkal tickets. On certain trains, tickets get sold out in less than a minute.
TOI teams visited different reservation centres early on Monday and found similar scenes of chaos. Those waiting in line were cynical about the system and touts invariably made their way into the queue through various ways.
Travel agents bend rules, hoard 60% Tatkal tickets: Railways
Consider yourself lucky if your attempt to book a Tatkal train ticket succeeds. Railway sources say there are close to nine lakh seekers everyday for 1.1 lakh Tatkal tickets. With air fares soaring and the number of such tickets down to 30 %, emergency travel has become a nightmare for the common man.
Every day, some 4.5 lakh Tatkal requests are logged on the IRCTC website in the first hour (8-9 am). Lakhs of other passengers wait patiently in serpentine queues for hours at stations.
However, where earlier 10 seats in each coach used to be set aside for the Tatkal quota , now only 10% of the seats are reserved.Changesmadeduring former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's tenure have increased the demandsupply gap, sources say.
But the increased difficulty in procuring tickets has benefited travel agents. The railways estimates that around 60 % of Tatkal tickets are procured by agents. This, despite a ban on recognized agents logging onto the IRCTC website during the first two hours.
Source:-The Economic Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment