The Tatkal scheme is a ticketing booking scheme established by Indian Railways. This scheme is used for booking journeys and travels at very short notice. The Indian Railway Authority has introduced this scheme in all forms of reserved classes on almost all trains in India.

The Tatkal Scheme charges have been fixed by the Indian Government at the rate of 10% of basic fare for second class and 30% of basic fare for all other classes.

IRCTC Tatkal Booking Timings

Indian Railways have set the booking timings over the whole country is the following for:

• Ticket booking starts at 10:00 AM a day prior to the journey.
• For app-based booking, Tatkal window opens 1 day in advance(excluding the day of journey). For instance, if your travel date is on 10th, then the Tatkal window will open on the app on 8th.
• Specifically, the Tatkal booking opens at 10 AM for AC Classes one day in advance to the actual date of journey.
• The Tatkal booking opens at 11 AM for Non-AC(Sleeper) Classes one day in advance to the actual date of journey.
• Tatkal tickets will be issued for the actual distance of travel instead of end-to-end travel.
• Duplicate Tatkal tickets shall not be issued except for one case, only when the payment is fully paid along with the Tatkal charges.
• The Tatkal charges will be levied in all periods(peak & non-peak) without any change.

Identity

For identity, passenger needs to provide his/her identity in only one of the following ways:

1. Voter Photo Identity Card
2. Passport
3. PAN Card
4. Driving License
5. Photo ID Card
6. Student ID Card with photograph
7. Nationalized Bank Pasphotographphotograpgh
8. Aadhar card
9. Credit Cards issued by banks with Photographs

You will need to provide any one of the aforementioned to prove your identity.

For app based Tatkal booking, the passenger shall enter the identity proof type and number.