look news india
New Delhi. Getting a seat in the train during Diwali-Chhath is like getting bread for a hungry person. Actually, many people book tickets 3 months in advance. In such a situation, people who have to travel due to some emergency or whose leave is approved late by the office, are hardly able to get a confirmed seat. To control the crowd during the festive season and provide convenience to the passengers, Indian Railways also runs many special trains (Festive Special Trains), but still confirmed seats are not available on many routes.
In such a situation, the question arises whether there is any way to get a confirmed train ticket in this situation. The answer is 'yes'. Indian Railways had started Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme (ATAS) to get confirmed train tickets. Many passengers are still not aware of this scheme. We will tell you about this scheme below.
What is Train Alternative Accommodation Scheme (ATAS)?
Now passengers can also book train tickets with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). ATAS was introduced to simplify the process of train booking with the help of AI. It is also called option plan. The objective of this scheme is to provide confirmed tickets to the passengers.
If a passenger books a waiting ticket and chooses ATAS option. So ATAS helps in getting a seat in another train of that route. Now understand it in this way that while booking tickets, if you check the seat availability of all the trains but do not get a confirmed seat in any of them, then you get tired and take a waitlisted ticket of any train. After some time, if the ticket is canceled in some other train, then ATAS will send you a notification informing you that a confirmed seat is available in that train. Now you can transfer your waiting ticket to another train and in this way you will get a confirmed seat. This scheme will be very beneficial for those passengers who are traveling in emergency.
How can you avail the benefits of Vikalp Scheme?
Option plan is suggested while booking tickets online. You must select this option. Now you have to select 7 trains running on your route. If there is no confirmed seat available in the train in which you have booked a seat and there is a seat available in another train, you will get a seat in the other train.
Please note that it is not necessary that you get a confirmed seat after selecting the option plan. You will get a seat only if there is a seat available in any of the 7 trains chosen by you. This facility of Indian Railways gives more choices to the passengers and also tries to make the journey easier.