Indian Railways had started Tatkal system only for those planning to travel suddenly. Well, earning might also have been an important reason behind this. Because Tatkal tickets are more expensive than ordinary tickets. At present, there are two systems for booking Tatkal tickets.
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IRCTC Tatkal Rail Tickets can be booked a day before the journey. Booking for 3AC and above classes starts at 10 am and booking for sleeper Tatkal tickets starts sharp at 11 am. Apart from the counter, Tatkal tickets can also be booked online. You will often see long queues in railway reservation centers for IRCTC Tatkal Rail Ticket. In such a situation, online booking remains the only option for convenience. But booking tatkal tickets online is not child’s play. On busy routes and during peak seasons, you have only a few minutes, literally a few seconds, to book a ticket.
How to book Tatkal Ticket fast? Let us tell you about this…
First of all you must have an IRCTC account. You can create your account by visiting https://www.irctc.co.in website.
create master list
After this make a master list. You can access this option through My Profile. Hover the mouse cursor over My Profile at the top. Here you will see the master list in the drop down. Click on it. Master List is actually a list of passengers which you can already store in your profile. On this page you will have to store information like passenger’s name, age, gender, berth preference, food preference, senior citizen, ID card type and ID card number. After storing all this information, click on Add Passenger. In this way, all the information of that passenger will be stored in the master list of the IRCTC portal. By the way, we would suggest you not to give berth preference. Because, the most important thing for you is to get the ticket. It is possible to arrange for a desired seat even during the journey. You can store data of maximum 20 passengers in the master list.
Make a travel list
After making the master list, we would suggest you to make a travel list. This will also be found in the drop down of my profile. This can be made only after making the master list. Suppose a total of 6 people are going to travel. A travel list can be made with these passengers. Go to the Travel List page. Here the name and details of the list will be asked. After this, there will be an option to select the names of the passengers from the master list. Select the names of the passengers you want to add to that list. Our suggestion would be to name the list something which is indicative in itself. Our suggestion would be to complete the work of master list and travel list in advance.
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Preparing to book
Now come to the ticket booking process. You will have to login to the web portal according to which class you want Tatkal ticket for. For 3AC or above classes, you must log in by 9.57 am. For ticket booking in slipper class at 10.57 am. After this, immediately enter the names of the stations according to your journey in the box ‘Plan My Journey’. After this choose the date and finally click on submit.
After giving the travel information, you will reach the train suggestion page. Here there will be a list of all the trains that will run on that route tomorrow. You will see radio buttons for General, Premium Tatkal, Ladies and Tatkal above the train list. Now click on Tatkal.
After this, choose one of the bogie classes shown in front of the train by which you want to travel. Keep in mind that if you do not choose instant, you will see general availability on the website.
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After clicking on the category, the ticket availability box will appear at the top of the page. Suppose you need a Tatkal ticket in Third AC in Mumbai Rajdhani. You entered all the information till 9.58 and reached the ticket availability page. Here you will see the total number of seats available but the Book Now button will be active only at 10 am. In such a situation, you do not need to log out from this page. You stay on this page. But IRCTC server automatically logs out the page which remains static for a long time. In such a situation, there is no need to worry. There is a solution for this too, you can check the availability in different trains during this period. But keep in mind that you should not click too much on the page. Keep clicking at an interval of 20-25 seconds, but stop exactly at 9.59 pm and click between different classes of the train of your choice.
As soon as 10 o’clock clicks again on the button of third AC class of your favorite train. If you go to the railway server at 10 o’clock then the Book Now button will be activated. Now click on the Book Now button.
How to use master list and travel list
The speed of your fingers will prove to be very effective on this page and this is where master list and travel list will be useful. Which we had mentioned earlier. This is a page to share booking information. Suppose you have to travel with five people. If you enter information like name, age, gender, berth preference of every passenger, then the Tatkal ticket is out of your hands. Master list comes in handy to complete this work quickly. On the border line of the passenger details box, you will see a button of Select from your master list. After clicking on it, you will have the information of all those people whose names you had already stored in the master list. Here you can select the names of the passengers for whom tickets are to be booked. In this way, the details of the passenger will be automatically filled in the IRCTC booking page in a few seconds. However, the method of selecting passenger names from the master list will prove effective for one or two passengers. But you should choose the travel list for 6 passengers. Select from travel list is also present next to select from master list. After this you select the travel list. And automatically the names of all the passengers will be filled in the box.
Keep these in mind to save time
Now you will also see boxes like auto upgradation, booking only confirmed tickets, preferred coach ID, travel insurance and mobile number. You can add options of your choice in these. We would suggest you to opt for travel insurance only. Avoid the rest of the frills to save time. Go straight to the bottom and enter the captcha code. At the time of Tatkal booking, the captcha code is written in a slightly complicated manner. In such a situation, our suggestion would be to fill it after reading it carefully. If the code goes wrong, you will lose 10 seconds of your work, which is too much for instant booking. After sharing all this information, click on the Next button.
This is the last page of IRCTC before the ticket is booked. Here, at a glance, check the details of the journey, date of train and passenger. Now turn for payment. You will get options like Debit Card, Net Banking, Credit Card and Paytm. You can choose the payment method of your choice. Well, we have found net banking to be a much easier method. Because in this you have to share less information as compared to debit card or credit card, which saves time. And in Tatkal ticket booking, time is like money.
Important points: You will hardly be able to book a confirmed Tatkal ticket on a busy route with an internet speed of 1 Mbps. Speeds above 4 Mbps are best. OTP during payment depends on your luck and telecom network. Keep your phone nearby while booking tickets.
