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| [Courtesy Indian Railways] |
Another time. Those days Anna Hazare was ruling the country's emotions. Some people in the media were telling "many of these people crowding around Anna Hazare at Delhi in front of India Gate and applauding high morals will fish out a fifty rupee note if they are caught for traffic violation or fish out more if they are to travel in trains without reservation. Hypocrites". That was what was going to happen when I came to board the train one night at Ahmedabad for Mumbai. I came to know that by any honest means I can not travel with reservation. Suddenly, Anna's face flashed in front of me. Believe me I instantly decided to travel the whole of 8 hours standing near the gate of a general compartment without resorting to other means. Let me tell you I was feeling proud of my decision. I boasted about it and some people looked at me with a lot of admiration. One of them even paid for my tea at Surat and later arranged a little space for me to sit.
One more. In 1985 I was travelling to Kashmir with my wife and our two year old son by Jammu Tavi Express. I was to board the train from New Delhi after a break journey there. The time was 12.30 am. I came to know at the station that the reservation we had was not for that night and had lapsed in the previous night. We were panicky. I was wondering what should be done in the middle of the night in such a situation. Finally we both decided that we will try in the train and face whatever happens. The moment the 2nd AC Compartment was opened by the TTE we entered. He resisted saying no passenger was to get in there. Without listening a word I pushed him and brought my family inside. I told him we needed to talk. Quickly I explained my predicament. He insisted that we get down. I told him "no way. How can you be so inhuman. By mistake the reservation lapsed. But I have a long travel plan, all tied up with this date." He was very well built. To throw me out he would not have needed help. Perhaps he looked at my wife and my son and said nothing. He later helped me travelling on his own berth. From then on the journey was enjoyable. Through this blog, today I salute that unknown benevolent employee of Railways and say a big Thank you.
If you are to travel long distance and you have time then Train Journey is the best. But for that you need to have proper reservation. The reservation procedure has undergone a sea change during our life time. Today's younger generation who would take out their mobile to book a reservation in the trains cannot visualize how we got our reservations done.
Before 1985 all ticketing in Railways was done manually. In each station there will be books with the ticket counters. Books separately for each train. Depending on the number of seats allotted to the station there will be numbering done and reservations were issued by filling these rows on the particular folio. Then the ticket was issued by manually preparing a ticket which used two side carbon papers so that the ticket was copied on another paper as also got almost embossed on the back of the original. To check availability of reservations on a particular train on different dates, the ticketing staff had to turn the folios of those days to find out if some space was available for filling. Different trains means different books and its different pages for different dates. It took a considerable time to get a reserved ticket. That meant long hours standing in the queue. Booking train reservation used to be a day's affair. I remember of starting from home early with full breakfast with the news paper and a novel and a packet of cigarettes. Yes, you could smoke standing in the queue itself those days without any fear of retribution or strange gestures from public. It was a necessary evil and perhaps people thought "how otherwise the poor fellow could stand for so long". Believe me I used to get so pissed up with this that many times I took out my Maruti 800 to travel long distances. Let me share that once we four of us, my wife, son and daughter traveled by this car of mine to even Odisha from Ahmedabad..
Slowly things changed. But before doing computerization of passenger ticketing, Railways first decided to computerise freight operations in 1982. From 1985 it was decided to introduce Stand-alone Computerised ticketing and reservations in a phased manner. As Pilot Project it was started at New Delhi in 1985. Subsequently, it was introduced in Bombay in June,1987 and in July and October of the same year it was introduced in Chennai and Kolkata respectively. In 1986, the Ministry of Railways established Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), an umbrella organisation for all information related activities on Indian Railways. In 1989 train numbers were standardised for four digits universal numbering. In 1990 self-printing ticket machine (SPTM) was introduced in New Delhi. In 1990, Country-wide Network for Computerized Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing (CONCERT) was developed by CRIS as a total solution for rail ticketing.
Today IRCTC manages all the reservations. We therefore immediately go to IRCTC site. IRCTC is actually a Government of India Enterprise. The full name is Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. Having made a beginning on 27th Sept 1999, with a paid up capital of Rs.20 crores in a short span of 20-21 years the Company has grown up to a stage where its Market Capitalization is more than Rs.20,000 crores.
The main areas of operation of IRCTC are :(1) Catering & Hospitality, (2) Internet Ticketing, (3) Travel & Tourism and (4) Packaged Drinking Water ( Rail Neer). IRCTC manages the entire on-board catering services of Indian Railways in more than 460 passenger trains with pantry cars that include Rajdhanis, Shatabdis, Durantos, Gatimans and Mail/Express trains. Their services also include the newly introduced passenger trains such as Vande Bharat Express and Tejas Trains.
There has also been continuous work to upgrade the services related to reservations in the trains. Several new facilities have been introduced in e-ticketing during the last two years such as :
New User Interface for e-Ticketing website.Waitlist ticket confirmation Prediction Facility to Users.E-Ticket booking facility for Visually Impaired and Differently Abled Users on Mobile App.Facility of "Book Now Pay Later" (after 15 days) on website.TalkBack feature included to assist Visually Impaired to book e-Tickets.
The other interesting thing that has happened to Reservations in Indian Railways is booking on Tatkal and Premium Tatkal Quota. Tatkal reservation gives hope to all the passengers to reserve at short notice and is done with an income component to Railways. Tatkal booking opens for selected trains at 10 am for AC class and for Non-AC classes it is 11 am. People often reach the Railway Station the previous night and make a queue. I had an excellent Tatkal booking experience once at Habibgunj at Bhopal. We had been to my sister-in-law's place at Bhopal. Last minute we had to change our travelling plans for some social purpose. For reservations we had to resort to Tatkal. Some of our family members sat in the queue from 11 in the night with tea in a flask and snacks for Tatkal booking at 10 am next day. Early morning other family members reached with breakfast. It was almost a picnic of a different type. They say the end justifies the means. We got the reservations and felt all the trouble undertaken as justified.
Another time at Puri I had to urgently book tickets to bring along my Mother from Puri to Ahmedabad. I was advised that for Tatkal reservations at Puri standing on queue from 4 am will be alright. I was in my sister's place. To be able to reach at 4 am I could not sleep for whatever time I was in the bed. I reached the station at 4 am. There was not a single soul there in moving condition. Many people were lying on the floor like pieces of log. I was happy to be the first one. I took some coffee and was happily passing the time. As the morning approached suddenly everyone lying on the floor got up and stood in the queue claiming that they were the first ones to reach there the previous night. I was pushed to the background. When one of the RPF personnel came and arranged the queue by AC and Non-Ac I saw myself on the first. Otherwise that day I would not have been able to secure a reserved ticket. Just before 10 am the booking staff took my reservation slip and asked me to deposit the ticket amount with her. The moment the bell struck ten she did some thak thak thak, thakthakthak thathathatha....... Sir your ticket. My joy new no bounds.
The drudgery of the sleepless night for a Tatkal Reservation was forgotten.
Railways announced to run more stationary trains, see full list here - informalnewz
