How to Book Confirmed Tatkal Train Tickets [IRCTC]

Tatkal ticket is the only way when you have to travel by train in emergency. It can be booked 24 hours or 1 day before departure date of the train. Problem is that you don’t get Confirmed Tatkal Tickets as quota is less and IRCTC Website doesn’t load easily during peak hours.

Not just the less quota is responsible for it but also there are many issues like Server Failure (due to load or done deliberately), Mass booking by IRCTC Agents and moreover Luck.

Here, I will share some tricks by which you can get a confirmed tatkal ticket on the go. Most of the Time is consumed filling up form details so, we’ll try to minimize that first.

Updated on 05th May 2012

Trick mentioned earlier used “Quick Book” feature of IRCTC Website but it is no more available during 10:00 to 11:00 AM IST so, only the regular booking option left for you.

Don’t worry because it is not just you but Quick Book won’t be available for anyoneso just concentrate on minimizing time spent on each step while booking.

1. Things You Will Need

Go to erail.in and enter the station name and Date. Search Result will get first two things. If you are on windows 8, you may also try out Free Indian Railways Enquiry Apps for Windows 8.

• Station Code – Though, Auto-suggestions are provided while typing out Station name but many a times it won’t or may time time. So, Entering Station Code yourself is recommended.
• Train Priority – By knowing the train names, you can decide upon which Train to try first.
• Identity Proof of any one Passenger- It is recommended to write down Driving License No or Voter ID or PAN Card number on Notepad and Copy it.
• 3 Web Browsers - Install Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera on your System.
• Multiple IRCTC Accounts – Don’t make it with Fake Details but one yours and other can be your Wife’s/Father’s or Friend’s account. At least two are recommended.

2. Trial Run

This Step has to be carried out 1 Day Earlier or before 9:30 AM on the day of booking. What I mean by trial run is carrying out booking steps as we are going to do as in Tatkal. Only difference is using “General Quota” option and closing the session on Payments page.

Why Trial Run?To Keep Travelers’ Name in Browser Memory and don’t have to fill out all names while booking Tatkal. Just Mouse Click on Form Field will suggest names and can be entered without typing. This will save significant amount of time if there are more than two travelers.

Also, if using Credit Card, it can be used to save that 16 digit number separated in 4 form fields.

3. Keep Session Active

Tatkal Train ticket booking starts at 10 AM. So, you need to gear up early (say 9:40 AM) and try logging in Website before clock strikes 10 AM.

Open all 3 Web Browsers and login into IRCTC Website using different IDs and keep it active.

To do that, Find Trains in General Quota on same date, it will take few minutes and that’s what we want- just pass time till 10:00 according to IRCTC timing.

4. Start Booking

If the clock at IRCTC page says it is already 10:00:00 Hrs then start with the procedure one by one on all Browsers. Fill out the form just by double clicking mouse and entering the suggested names.

Keep in Mind – Never trust on the progress of booking on any procedure until you see the CONFIRM Ticket booked page. Keep going through the steps on all browsers simultaneously and stop not until at least 1 says “Booked”. I have personal experience of getting error message at the final steps so beware.

My Question is:

1. Why Log in from Multiple Browsers?
   A – Just in case, you get “Service Unavailable” message or sometimes some browser gets lucky to get your requests done quicker.
2. Why Multiple Accounts when I can do it from One on all browsers?
   A – If we are keeping process on going from different browsers on same account, chances are that, at the last time moment, IRCTC will reject your transaction saying one or more session open.
3. Why Not AutoFilling Addons instead of Trial Run?
   A – You can use them too if you know but as here we are dealing with multiple browsers, Trial Run will be same for all and work in similar fashion.
4. How to Deal with “Service Unavailable” or “Unable to Connect”
   A – Generally happens after train selection or filling out any form. Press Reload button and click on “Resend Data” when pop-up appears.

What does CKWL Tatkal Ticket means?

In a rare case, it may happen that while moving on to bank webpage, you are shown Availability but till you come back, the ticket provided has status CKWL.

CKWL means the Waiting List in Tatkal Quota which differs from GNWL (General Waiting List). In my case, CKWL 5 was cleared up within 2 hours of booking but it may vary train to train.

The above procedure tries to minimize the time spent in filling up forms and speed up tatkal booking so, you can grab confirm tatkal ticket before the quota is over. Good Luck and let us know of your success rate in getting a confirm tatkal ticket.

You may feel that the procedure is too lengthy to follow but read it once completely, it will take time in first shot especially for non tech-savvy people but it is easy to follow and a matter of getting Confirmed Tatkal Tickets