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Railway reservation windows have opened for millions of passengers going to their villages and ancestral homes on the country’s biggest festival of lights, Diwali, and Chhath, the great festival of faith that comes immediately after. The competition for seats in trains going from big industrial and working cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, Bengaluru, Punjab and Chennai to North India, especially Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal has started. Like every year, this time too, as soon as booking opens in regular trains, seats are getting filled within just a few minutes and the waiting list is getting longer rapidly.
The main festival of Diwali is to be celebrated on the second Sunday of November i.e. 8th November, while Dhanteras starts from 6th November. In such a situation, it has become mandatory for those who want to reach their home two-three days before the festival, to book tickets during the first and second week of the month of September. Railway experts say that if the passengers do not decide the date of their journey and book the tickets in time, then later they will have to face heavy waiting or uncertainty of Tatkal tickets.
After the major changes in the railway ticket reservation system, now passengers will have to pay special attention to the Advance Reservation Period (ARP). The advance reservation deadline has been reduced from 120 days to 60 days by Indian Railways. Many travelers are still confused by the old 120 day rule, due to which they miss the correct date of booking. Under this new rule of 60 days, online and counter booking of general quota starts at 8:00 am exactly 60 days in advance, excluding the date of travel.
If your journey is starting from the originating station of the train on 5th November, its booking is open 60 days in advance i.e. in the first week of September. Similarly, the booking window for the journey of 6th November (Dhanteras) and 7th November (Chhoti Diwali) is opening from 8:00 am on 7th September and 8th September respectively. The reservation window will open on 9th September for 8th November (Main Diwali) and on 11th September for 10th November (Bhai Dooj). After this, tickets can be booked from 16th and 17th September for Chhath Mahaparva falling on 15th and 16th November. This calculation is done on the basis of the day of departure from the origin station of the train.
There is already a huge shortage of seats on the major railway routes from Delhi and Mumbai to Purvanchal and Bihar. Seats in sleeper and third AC classes in popular superfast and express trains—such as Sampoorna Kranti Express, Vaishali Express, Bihar Sampark Kranti, Purva Express, Magadh Express and Vikramshila Express from New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Old Delhi to Patna, Darbhanga, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Varanasi and Gaya—are filling up as soon as they become available.
Similarly, in Kushinagar Express, Pawan Express, Kamayani Express and Bhagalpur Express running from Mumbai Central, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and Bandra, the waiting list for the dates just before Dhanteras and Diwali has crossed 50. Heavy booking of workers and businessmen is also being recorded in Tapti Ganga and Surat-Chhapra clone trains running from Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Railway officials say that during the peak season, the number of passengers exceeds the capacity by three to four times, leading to ‘regret’ or ‘no room’ situations within minutes.
During the festive season, when booking opens at 8:00 am on the IRCTC website and Rail Connect mobile app, the server receives traffic from lakhs of users simultaneously. In such times, every second is precious. If you follow some smart tricks, your chances of getting a confirmed seat increase to 90 percent:
The first step is to go to your IRCTC profile a day before the booking opens. ‘Master List’ Get it ready. Pre-save the full names, correct age, gender and birth preference (lower, middle, side lower) of all passengers in the family in the master list. While booking at 8:00 am, you will not have to type the name again and in just one click, all the passengers’ data will appear in the form.
Another important measure is the right selection of payment gateway. While making payment through net banking or debit card, there may be a delay in receiving the OTP, due to which the ticket is lost. instead of IRCTC e-WalletSelect Paytm Wallet or UPI Autopay/QR Code Scan option. Payment through e-wallet is completed in two seconds by simply entering a transaction password and an OTP.
Third, while filling the booking form “Consider for Auto Upgradation” And “Book only if confirm berths are allotted” Choose the right option as per your need from the given options. If you are booking a ticket in Sleeper class and a seat in Third AC remains vacant at the time of chart preparation, your seat can be upgraded to AC without any extra charges through Auto Upgradation.
The fourth rule is that you should login to your computer or phone at exactly 7:55 in the morning, so that at exactly 8:00 you can directly click on ‘Book Ticket’. If you try to login at exactly 8 o’clock, two to three minutes of time may be wasted in the login itself due to captcha and server load.
Fifth, always select the ‘VIKALP’ plan. Even if the ticket in your favorite train goes to the waiting list, if you choose the option scheme, the Railways can allot you a confirmed seat without paying any extra money if there is a vacant seat in any other train on the same route.
If for some reason all the general quota tickets have been exhausted on the date of your journey and the waiting list has gone above 150, there is no need to despair. Railways makes many alternative arrangements for the convenience of passengers. The first option opens just one day before the journey. ‘Tatkal Quota’ And ‘Premium Tatkal Quota’ It happens. Tatkal booking opens at 10:00 am a day before the date of journey for AC class and at 11:00 am for Non-AC (Sleeper).
Additionally, to reduce the additional pressure during the festive season, the Railway Board is Festival Special Trains (Diwali-Chhath Special Trains) Runs. These special trains are run point-to-point between major cities. These trains are announced 15 to 20 days before the journey. If tickets are not available in regular trains, keep a regular eye on the notifications of special trains on the official Twitter handle of Railways and IRCTC portal. Special trains have adequate number of AC, sleeper and general unreserved coaches, making it easy to reach home even at the last minute.