From tomorrow, Tatkaal ticket booking will begin from 10 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., both online and at stations.

The Ministry of Railways has done this to separate the people who book tickets under the normal four months advance booking scheme from those who book under the Tatkaal scheme.

The move comes in the wake of media reports on early bulk bookings by touts and sale of Tatkaal tickets in black.

From July 10, the booking window for travel agents will open after 12 noon, both online and offline. The online traffic and the crowd at stations can be better managed through this move, as Tatkaal tickets are costlier than the normal tickets.

“Under the new amendment, the booking of Tatkaal tickets will start at 10.00 hours on the previous day of journey from train originating station instead of 0800 hours at present. In addition, it has also been decided that no authorised agents will be allowed to book Tatkaal tickets from 1000 hours to 1200 hours from counters as well as from internet,” said a Railway Ministry release. The Ministry is working towards increasing the e-ticket booking capacity from about 3.5 lakh now to around 5 lakh a day in about four months. The capacity will further go up to 8 lakh bookings per day in the long term.

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