Tips to get tatkal ticket from railway site IRCTC

Getting tatkal tickets from Indian Railways site https://www.irctc.co.in/ is a difficult task. This hub gives all tips that you will need to know to get tatkal tickets through online. You can get tatkal ticket either through railway counters or through IRCTC. Getting tatkal ticket from IRCTC is a tough task for trains with a lot of travelers. But considering the difficulty of standing in queue in railway ticket counter in the morning itself, online booking is easy.

Tatkal Tickets

Tatkal tickets are available only 1 day before the day of travel(earlier it was two days before. According to recent regulations from IRCTC, tatkal tickets are available only one day before the departure of train.). You can book these tickets either through Railway reservation counters or through IRCTC site (Also there are some additional means like using IRCTC mobile app. But the chance to get confirmed tatkal ticket is less in other ways.). This hub gives ideas to book confirmed tatkal ticket through IRCTC site.

Tatkal reservation starts only at 8 o clock in the morning of one day before the day of travel. So there will be a large number of people trying to access IRCTC site in that time (those who couldn't book in advance, and those who are looking for a ticket under emergency travel conditions. ). Hence it is very difficult to get ticket in that time. There will be many replays saying 'service not available' and other error messages because of the large number of people visiting the site at this peak time.

Tips to get Tatkal ticket

Use multiple accounts and time synchronization

Requirements

Use many browsers and accounts(the more you have more better)

I expect you will have 2 or 3 web browsers like internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google chrome etc installed in you computer. Create many accounts in IRCTC site (For creating an account you will need a separate mobile number) and log in using these accounts using different browsers.(Remember while creating these IRCTC accounts never use same phone number because it is not allowed to use multiple accounts). If you do not have more than one account, borrow your friends account. It is always better to have the most fast internet connection with you, as a large number of users are trying the more speed you have the more better it is.

Start early and do initial steps

Sync your computer time with IRCTC time

Remember to log in to IRCTC site 4 minutes before 8 o clock and make your system clock time and the time shown in IRCTC site the same this will hep you to track time and know exactly when 8 'o' clock is reached according to IRCTC timing. If you are logging in very early, try to keep your session active by clicking in differently links inside the site,otherwise by 8 o clock your session may expire. By some 7.59 am rest by selecting some link other than Plan My Travel link. Because at exactly 8.00 am in your computer (same as IRCTC time as you have synchronized it) you need to click Plan my Travel link and have to fill in the details.

Collect the required data before

You should have all the data that you need to be filled during the booking process along with you before you are starting. First one is the source and destination station codes. (remember the station codes for source and destination. If you do not know, search and find in advance. You can use Google for this purpose.). Now according to new regulation of IRCTC, they are asking for ID card number of at least one person. So you should enter ID card type and ID card number. Keep this with you. You can use autofilling addons for browsers or remember form field history option of browsers to make this data entry fast.

Booking process

First you have to find available trains, selecting source and destination of travel. After getting the list of trains, you have to select the train you want and click book button available. Then you will get a page to fill in the details of the person who is traveling. Now maximum number of people allowed to travel in one Tatkal ticket is 4 only. For filling in these details you can use auto fill add on in Firefox described in step 3. It will let you fill details of all passengers in one click. Then you have to select a payment option and make the payment through net banking, cards etc. But it is found that net banking is more fast compared to other ways. Also try with different banks on which you have account and find out the fastest one for booking.

Try using Quick book option (Now quick book is disabled between 8am to 9am . But you can use it in any other time.)

There is an option under services Quick book. Select this option. In this you can book ticket quickly provided you know the number of the train in which you want to travel. Fill this form quickly and press quick book button. It will go straightly to banking site without asking for any further verification an confirmation. But now for booking emergency tatkal it is of no use as it is not available between 8am and 9am-the peak time of tatkal booking. But if you are booking tatkal after 9.00am it is useful.

Using Auto fill addon in mozilla firefox

Now you may have found that the only time taking section in this tatkal booking process is the filling of details in form. This can be done in one second using autofill addon in mozilla firefox. So you have to install this addon earlier. You can add this to firefox in the link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/autofill-forms/. After installing this addon you have to fill the form and save it in the addon. Now during the booking time you have to simply right click in the page and select autofill of that page.

But right click is disabled in IRCTC site to enable that you have to run a javascript . Just type

javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null)

in the address bar after coming to details entry page and press enter. Only after that you can right click on the page and select autofill the details that you have stored earlier for booking.

After following all these steps, everything is at your luck. Also remember to synchronize your system clock with IRCTC site time, and start booking exactly after 8.00 am. Because in the first minute itself traffic will raise tremendously. So the ones who try in the first seconds after 8.00am have good chance. Indian railway is one of the largest railway networks in the world. So the number of users using online ticket booking feature is also very high. As the number of users is very high always remember that each second that you are wasting, may put you in waiting list

Miscellaneous tips

Use non BSNL net connection and servers

1. Consider some more things about the internet connection that you are using. Most of the internet users in India are using BSNL net connection. So the traffic to IRCTC from BSNL servers will be very high. Hence try for other internet connections. If you have any friends outside India, tell them to book ticket for you from there, as they are accessing from different servers with less traffic to this particular site, they will face less problems like Service Unavailable reply.

2. Enable the low speed internet connection option in your browser (some browsers like opera have it) even though you are using high speed internet, during the booking time. This helps to load the page as data is receiving. This will help you to enter data even when page is loading.

If you are finding any new ways to book tatkal, please share below