NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Railways has changed the timings for the booking of Tatkal tickets in AC and non-AC classes, starting on Monday, in order to reduce the load on the ticketing website and booking windows.
According to reports, the new timing for booking tickets for AC classes is 10 am onwards on the previous day of journey from train originating station, while the timing for non-AC classes starts at 11 am.
Currently, the booking under Tatkal scheme opens at 10 AM on the previous day of journey from train originating station.
All types of ticketing agents including IRCTC agents will now be debarred from booking non-Tatkal tickets for 30 minutes from the opening of bookings, that is from 8 am to 8.30 am for general classes, from 10 am to 10.30 am for Tatkal AC classes, and from 11 am to 11.30 am for Tatkal non-AC classes.
Sources said the railways is also thinking of providing refund for Tatkal ticket cancellation and the percentage of refund is still being worked out.
The railways is also planning refund on cancellations of premier train tickets and such refunds could go up to 50 per cent of the ticket amount.The IRCTC website had recently registered three crore hits a day, slowing down the server in the process. The new booking timings would reduce hits during peak hours.
Currently about 10,000 to 12,000 tickets are being booked online IRCTC ticketing site at peak hours.
(With inputs from agencies)