Is tatkal quota – as a % of the total available births-a closely held secret?

19 SEP 2014

   Many times as a traveler, I have been intrigued by the number of total seats available at the time of booking, class by class, for tatkal and for general booking separately.

Is it too confidential an information for the customer / traveling public to know?

If so, why?

If not, Why not flash the availability of tatkal and general births while booking a ticket, on a real- time basis?

Is this % - tatkal to total births- different from train to train or the same for all trains in which tatkal is available?

Why the traveling public should be kept in the dark about this information which is the only vital data they need to take decisions while booking general or tatkal? This information also will be very helpful for the public when they have a ticket in waiting list in general category and they have to take a decision whether to book tatkal and cancel general ticket, or wait and take a chance for the wait listed general ticket to get confirmed.

If tatkal quota is not a closely held secret, why not give this vital information under each train number and name, along with the master information of the train like train number, source and destination stations etc.? It would be better to give also the % of tatkal tickets to total tickets class by class.

One affected indian Bakra/bakri in the service of the people of India.