Tatkal Ticket

What is Tatkal Ticket

Tatkal scheme is a premium ticketing system of Indian Railway that is available for passengers who don’t plan their journeys much before and want to travel at the last moment. In case of usual ticket booking starts before 90 days but booking for Tatkal ticket starts just 2 days before the commencement of the journey. A passenger is to pay the charge of actual distance of his travel and not charge from the source station to the destination station as was done earlier. Apart from that charge one will have to pay another charge that is known as Tatkal charge.

Fare and Charges on Tatkal Ticket

Tatkal ticket charge has been fixed as 10% of second class fare and 30 % in case of other classes subject to minimum and maximum charge as under.

Class of Travel Minimum Tatkal Charge (Lean) Maximum Tatkal charge (Peak)
Second Sitting 10 15
Sleeper 75 150
Ac chair Car 75 150
Ac 3 Tier 200 300
Ac 2 tier 200 300
Executive 200 300

10 to 20 percent of total berths of a train are available for booking under this scheme that varies from train to train. The minimum and maximum rate is levied according to the period of time and to facilitate this entire year is divided into four parts that is known as Peak Period and Lean Period.

Lean Season: 1st February to 31st march and 1st august to 31st August
Peak period: 1st April to 31st July and 1st September to 31st January.

Tatkal Ticket Refund

Read Tatkal Ticket Refund too.

When train is delayed by more than 3 hours refund is permissible. If a confirmed ticket is presented before 24 hours of the scheduled departure of a train a flat 25 % minus Tatkal charge is refunded. After this period no refund is granted on confirmed tickets. Wait listed tickets can be refunded as usual but the Tatkal charge paid is non refundable. If the railway finds that quota utilization of a particular train is more than 80 percent in the last six months it enhances the percentage of Tatkal quota from usual 10 percent to 20 percent.