Monthly Archives: February 2016

Indian Rail Info, Indian Railway News

The Tatkal rules and regulations

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The change in the Tatkal Booking system: Be more alert

The mass transportation plays a vital role in the development of any country. The same applies to India as well. There are different modes of mass transportation available, but the most preferred mode is the Railway only. Therefore, those who love to go for a long route journey prefer to travel by railway only. However, there are a few norms for the ticket booking which one must follow and as the changes to the system can affect one’s plan one needs to be a little alert.

However, in the case of a well-planned journey it is possible for one to book the ticket in advance, but what about those who need to travel on an emergency basis? Well, there is an arrangement of the Department of Railway, which is known as a Tatkal Booking system. Here one may ask what is the time for tatkal booking? But in response to it, one must know the latest changes brought into effect by the department.

Nowadays the tatkal booking is possible only before the twenty-four hours of the journey which was previously forty-eight hours. The booking starts at sharp 10 AM and hence for one who wants to book a ticket, must keep the browser open so that as soon as the booking starts, he can try and get it immediately before the server gets busy and some of the tickets are sold. For a passenger who needs to go for an emergency, this is the best option to go for a long route train.

The Tatkal charges and tickets according to Indian Railways have been changed after year 2014. It has been fixed as a proportion of train fares at the rate of ten percent of the basic second class train fares and 30 percent of the basic fares for all the other classes. There is a calculation of this thing.

The Tatkal Scheme varies with each class. Here is a basic idea given below.

For Second sittings, the charges are Rs. 10 extra for children and Rs. 15 for Adults. For Sleepers, it is Rs. 90 and Rs. 175 respectively. In case of AC Chair Cars, it is Rs.250 and Rs. 350. AC 2 tiers have a cost of Rs. 300 and Rs. 400 respectively and for Executive Classes; they are Rs. 300 and Rs. 400 again.

The other rules that needs to be followed

  • Tatkal tickets are issued only for the actual distance that are needed to be covered and are subject to the distance limit applicable on the train in which the ticket is issued. One berth can be booked by many passengers on a tatkal basis at multiple legs. When the final preparation chart is made, the unutilized berths of a train are released to the Waiting List and General RAC candidates.
  • The Tatkal bookings open at 10 AM in the morning for the AC Classes and at 11AM for the Non AC classes on one day advance from the exact date of journey of a given train. For example, if a train is leaving on 6th of November, the counter for Tatkal opening will be opened at 10 AM and 11 AM respectively on 5th of November.
  • No Tatkal duplicate tickets are issued in any chance. This is because; these tickets are bought only in exceptional cases and with full payment of ticket fare and the extra Tatkal charges on it.
  • Tatkal ticket booking does not need any kind of identity proof when the booking is done. But yes, during the time of journey, the passenger needs to show an original identity proof to the TT’s or officials. It can either be a Voter identity card or a Pan card or a Driving License or a Passport or an Aadhar Card.
  • Even for internet ticket bookings for Tatkal purposes, the passenger should enter the identity proof type and number, which they will be using for travel. These details shall be printed on the ERS/indicated on the VRM/MRM as well as in the reservation chart.
  • For every PNR number, there can be a maximum of four passengers and not more than that.

The refund procedure

No refund is given when you cancel the confirmed Tatkal tickets. But if the train gets late by more than 3 hours at the origin point of the journey & not the point where the passenger has to board the train if both the points originating boarding are different, then the passenger gets full refund.

These are the basics which should be known for the right guidance in the case of booking a tatkal ticket.

Tatkal Charges before journey starting date 24.12.2015

Class of Travel Minimum Tatkal Charges (in Rs.) Maximum Tatkal Charges (in Rs.)
Second (sitting) 10.00 15.00
Sleeper 90.00 175.00
AC Chair Car 100.00 200.00
AC 3 Tier 250.00 350.00
AC 2 Tier 300.00 400.00
Executive 300.00 400.00

 

Tatkal Charges applicable for journey starting from 24.12.2015 onwards

Class of Travel Minimum Tatkal Charges (in Rs.) Maximum Tatkal Charges

(in Rs.)

 Minimum Distance for charge(in Km)
Reserve Second sitting (2S) 10.00 15.00 100
Sleeper 100.00 200.00 500
AC Chair Car 125.00 225.00 250
AC 3 Tier 300.00 400.00 500
AC 2 Tier 400.00 500.00 500
Executive 400.00 500.00 250
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Indian Railways in the Quest of Boosting Tourism…!

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Indian railways have their own style of coming up new trains to attract the tourists. Every time they came up with something new, the revenue of the tourism department increased significantly. You might have heard about the luxurious trains like “Palace on Wheels,” which is a major foreign tourist’s attraction. The only disadvantage in its case is that they are too expensive. Aiming to target the budget concerned tourists, IRCTC announced it new trains. Check out more about them here:

Bharat Darshan:

“Bharat Darshan”, the train, which sets its journey from Delhi to Chandigarh is another plan executed by IRCTC to attract the tourists in large numbers. The schedule, fares and rest other aspects are all directly aimed to encourage tourism in India. This train will show the might of south India to the travelers. As of now, the authorities have announced two distinct packages for this train. They are detailed below:

First package:

  • The schedule for this package is made for 13 days and 14 nights. It is all set to start on February 14th and gets concluded on 27th of the same month.
  • Major tourists’ attractions of this journey are Ernakulam, Goa, Padmanabhan temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati balaji, Rameswaram-Ramnath temple and Kanyakumari.
  • Starting from Safdarjung station, it travels through the places like Moradabad, Shahjahanpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Bina and Bhopal.

Second package:

  • This trip is scheduled to be carried from March 16th to 28th. Spot ur train before the time runs away. It has an entire duration of 12 nights and 13 days.
  • There are many places in common between the first and second trips. In this trip, notable places visited by tourists are Mysore, Bangalore and Meenakshi temple.

The two scheduled packages between Delhi and Chandigarh have an attractive price of 830 rupees per day per person. Any of the trips by this train will include confirmed tickets, accommodation, sightseeing, food and other housekeeping services.indian railways

Semi-Luxury Trains:

To help the tourists in exploring the desert beauty of west India, IRCTC came up with a scheme of implementing two premier train services. The key points about these trains are listed here under:

  • These semi-luxury trains with deluxe facilities will set its journey from New Delhi. The whole trip is named as “Desert Circuit” and is scheduled for 5 days.
  • The Desert Circuit covers the places like Jaipur and Jaisalmer. The trip of other semi-luxury train is termed as “Heritage Circuit,” and it takes around the places like Varanasi, Kajuraho and Agra.
  • On a whole, these two trains will make 8 trips in a year.
  • Talking about the package prices, they are truly convincing. One can choose from a large variety of packages, and it is all set to attract tourists in a very large number.
  • The package prices for the Desert Circuit range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 36, 000. The range for the Heritage Circuit is from Rs 18,000 to Rs 35,000.
  • At Varanasi, the Heritage Circuit takes its passengers to Sarnath. Don’t forget to miss out the boat riding when you visit there.

IRCTC officials hope that these new initiatives could boost the tourism industry in India. The future of its plans in this context is largely based on the success of further such trains.

PNR Status

Here Comes the First Visually-Impaired Friendly Train

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You could have heard about new modernized features of Indian railways like bullet trains and trains with highly sophisticated coaches. Did you take a note of visually impaired friendly train? Indian Railways is all set to introduce its blind friend train…! This is one of the much appreciated initiatives taken up by the railways. Such moves made by government are aimed to make the society a better place to live in and make all the individuals a self-sufficient. This train is set to travel between Mysore and Varanasi. Let’s check out the key aspects of this train here under:

• This train is absolutely special…! Wondering, why it is so…? In our country, it is the first ever completely visually challenged friendly train. The successful implementation of this train has also led to the initiation of such other trains across the country.

 

• All the coaches of this Mysore-

 

Varanasi express (train number: 16229 / 16230) are provided with metallic Braille signage. This initiative has provided great ease to the blind people to recognize the indications like toilets, alarm pull chains, berth numbers and emergency windows.train pnr status

• Earlier, the madras railway station was made blind friendly. About 400 metal signage scripted in Braille were installed at the station describing various needy places like distance of entrance, platforms, counters, toilet, schedule of trains and others. The menu card in the canteens is also made available in Braille. We can state that this move has inspired the Mysore-Varanasi express.

• Prominent people in the Indian politics are involved in this prestigious project. Pratap Simha, the Member of Parliament for Mysore constituency, has financed for this project. This took an expenditure of 2 lakh rupees and time of about 2 months to turn this idea into a reality. Inauguration of the train was also done by him. He played a key role in turning the Mysore railway station blind friendly in November 2015.

• Good news is that, an announcement was made in the recent past that there are plans of implementing this feature in a few other major trains running from Mysore. The trains worth mentioning in this context are the Chamundi express and the Mysuru-Talguppa express.

• IRCTC has stated that all the other features like booking and cancellation of tickets, pnr status railways and others will remain unchanged for these trains.

• Bind people have always found railway journeys risky. Finding their confirmed berths, needy places aren’t easy tasks for them. This initiative can put an end to all these troubles faced by them. The emergency exit plan is also scripted in Braille on the boards, so as to enable the blind people to trace the directions to escape in case of emergency.

In its first journey, though any visually impaired persons are found hardly, we can expect this train to gain a wide popularity among blind passengers sooner or later. This move from Mysore has inspired many other train stations to take up this initiation. Statistics say that around 118 train services and railways are set to follow the path laid by the Mysore-Varanasi express. This trend seems to be soon implemented on a large scale enabling the blind people to travel independently.

PNR Status

We Present You The “Indian Railways” Like Never Before…!!

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Can you guess the budget of Indian Railways for the coming 5 years…? It’s a whooping 142 billion dollars…! The Indian Railway is all set to get into a new phase. In the last year, 110 reform measures were initiated by the Railways which permit 100 percent private sector investment. In a short period of time, we could well be checking out pnr status mobile for the new trains. Check out more about this here under:

  • The various targeted segments in this context are metro rails, suburban rails, manufacturing and maintenance and manufacturing, locomotives and rolling stock, electric and signaling works and dedicated freight lines.
  • The designated authorities are trying to explore ways to raise the funds by working closely with the reputed financial institutions like World Bank and IFC. The railway minister stated that the e-commerce can help the railways to modernize, expand, introduce transparency, introduce clean energy resources, improve efficiency and meet expectations of the customers.pnr status mobile
  • The Indian railways in collaboration with the US EXIM bank is working to design the specific financing model to take complete advantage of the huge investments and business opportunities in this sector. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a reputed organization involved in this aspect.
  • Aiming to provide transparency in fare and freight pricing, the Indian railways has set to design a draft framework for the same. To make these huge investments a reality, the public and private sector partnerships are encouraged equally.
  • A few projects which are on a run in Indian railways are: high speed trains across various cities, freight corridor, doubling and tripling train trips to facilitate heavy traffic, introducing modernized facilities in about 40 major railway stations, upgrading the existing signal system and instrumentation and a few other safety measures.
  • In the last year November month, 7 billion contracts were awarded to GE and Alstom. A key role is played by Japan in this context to improve the Indian railway system. We can witness huge investments flowing from this country. Moreover, Japan is extending its financial and technical help in building India’s first bullet train. The Indian railway is all set to capitalize these investments.
  • Our railway is also associated with France to improve its services. A major project undertaken in collaboration with France is to study the viability of upgrading Delhi to Chandigarh line which is a 245 km long track. About 400 major railways are set to be modernized under SNCF. The development of pilot projects in Ludhiana and Ambala are taken up by the French National railway.
  • A major initiative which is worth mentioning in this context is implementing the renewable energy resources to power up the railways. Solar and wind energy are prominently considered in this aspect. Use of this clean energy is a welcome phenomenon to promote our struggles to reduce pollution levels. Apart from being eco friendly, this can also be economical to the Indian railways.

These initiatives taken up the Indian railways are truly fascinating. In this massive scale, we can expect our railways to modernize at a faster rate.