Booking Indian Rail tickets from abroad: A Beginner’s Guide

2009-05-11T05:57:00.001-07:00

Almost all the regular train tickets of the Indian Railways can be booked over the net. A few points needs to be kept in mind to avoid any confusion later on. Even though you can book from abroad, this service is mainly addressed to the domestic passengers. In other words they do not deliver the tickets abroad.How does the overall scheme work?You select the train & book the tickets over the net. Pay with the credit card. Tell them if you will collect it personally or they need to deliver to the address given by you. In 2 to 3 days the ticket will be delivered to you to the India address by courier. As simple as that!Registration:To start with you need to do a small (not too small!) registration with the railways reservation site. You need to provide a bit of personal data and addresses. No credit card details are asked at this point. You need to give both residential and office address. You have an option of selection the address for delivery. Also if you have given an address at the time of registration and your ticket needs to be delivered at a different address, it is possible (to give a different delivery address) at the time of booking the ticket. (Note: PIN is Postal Index Number, the six digit Indian postal code. It will be asked during the registration and booking) Plan the Travel:You need to know three things at the first screen of booking. From & To stationsDate of travel Class of travel.Indian railways identify each of its stations with 2 to 4 alphabet codes. (For example New Delhi-NDLS, Whitefield –WFD).If you are not sure of the code there is a small yellow icon next to the field. Click this and enter the text name known to you. For example if you enter DELHI, a list of stations with codes in bracket would appear. Pick the one you want. A caution: Many of the Indian towns have two names (at least!). Railways have officially accepted only one of it. So if you are searching be aware of this fact. Search will not give result if you are not searching the official name. Mostly one name is the local name and the other is the English name. At places the English names are official and at others it is the local name. Chennai (MAS) is the official name of Madras (English)Quilon (QLN) (English) is official name of KollamVaranasi City (BCY) is the official name of Banaras (English)Note the codes. They are derived from the English name and always the local name need NOT be the official name. It takes about 2 to 3 days to deliver the tickets. So never select a date, which is too close to the date of booking. In other words book well in advance. You can do it a maximum of 60 days in advance. Select the class of travel. See my earlier post ‘Knowing the Indian Train’ if you need to know what each class ‘feel’ like.Once you’ve done with the above, the site give you list of probable trains, which suit the details, you have given. At this point you need to be a bit ‘knowledgeable’ about each of the trains. For example some may be super fast trains, some may be regular express trains..etc. A number of important trains are listed by Steven at ‘Train Information’ at the same sub forum. One easy way is to explore each of the trains there itself at the site . You may select each of the trains and press the keys [Get Fare] or [Show Availability] or [Show Route] etc. The comparison of fare would give you an idea about the type of the trains. Also this will show you the explanations of the charge that would be collected from you. The availability chart list the reservation status for as few nearby days of your selected travel date. If it looks full, you may select the next available date of go for a different train. The Route key will give you the full list of stations it cover with the ‘Timings’ of arrival and departure at each stations.Also note that there are may weekly, bi-weekly express trains.If the date selected by you does not coincide with the train's schedule, it will not be listed.You may miss that train even before it has started! Once you have selected the train, you would be taken to the next page for filling further details. See if the details accepted are the same desired by you. Enter the boarding point station. This is a confusing point ! What is the difference between From station and Boarding point?In all most all cases the Boarding point for you will be same as the From Station. From and To stations can’t be changed once the reservation is made. But later on if you plan to board the train from different station on the route, you can do that without loosing the reservation status. Just go to a PRS (Passenger Reservation System) counter with the ticket a and give a request to change the boarding point. No charges are collected for this. In other words they will wait for you up to the boarding station in the train before the seat is marked absent and allotted to the next waitlisted passenger. Select the Quota General or Ladies. There are special quota seats allocated for the female passengers. (In India females are called ladies!)Do not put a tick at the Senior Citizen check box, if you are not an Indian Citizen! There is a 30% concession for people above 60 years old for long distance fares. You need to carry some proof showing both age and nationality during the travel.Enter the name, Age, Sex and Berth choice details asked for all the passengers.You can book a maximum of 6 passenger per ticket. Now you need to tell them if you will collect the tickets personally (only at New Delhi at present) or to be couriered to you at the local address given by you. At this stage you can give any local added here. Select the City listed and give the PIN code. You SHOULD have the PIN known to you for giving the address of delivery. Once you have entered the City, Click the ‘Pin Code covered for delivery ’ to see if your pin code is listed there. As a thumb rule almost all the Cities and even mid size town are covered. No big worry on this as long as you know the PIN code of your address. Typically people give the local hotel’s address. A local friend’s address, a local office, an institution known, another travel colleague already in India etc are viable options. Some Hotels do this service with a nominal charge. Checkup with them before you give the address. If possible you can opt for collecting the tickets personally also. You need to produce the details like the PNR & Transaction ID. Also the proof of identity to be produced. The credit card used to book the ticket is OK. Alternatively, you can authorize someone else also to collect the ticket on your behalf. A letter from you a photocopy of the passport are sufficient for them the collect the ticket on your behalf.A nominal fee is charged by the railways as service charges (for courier etc) and 1.8% of the total cost is charged if you are using credit card. A host of other payment options are listed. But if you are doing from abroad, VISA or MASTER cards are the most viable options. You would be asked the card details like any other online payment processes. Once you have booked, you will be given the Transaction ID and the 10 digits PNR (Passenger Name Record).PNR is the most important code in tracking the status of your ticket etc at any later stage.Please Note: You cannot cancel online. The ticket needs to be collected and produced at the reservation counters for cancellation. Online-booked tickets can be cancelled and the refund will only be credited to the account used to book it. This is a safety precaution as no one else can misuse it.Foreign quota tickets cannot be booked online.There are some limitations on the number of tickets (each with a maximum of 6 persons) that can be booked per month for each user name.You need to have the physical ticket with you to board the train. This is the only accepted document within the train to claim the reservation. Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited is the Indian Railway’s agency running the online reservation facility. Many useful details are also available at the site.www.irctc.co.in

IRCTC Railway Reservation Form

2009-05-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Fight with Tererist

2008-12-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

All are request to check their neighbour. If they are new ask society for take NOC from police station.

At the time of travelling take care.Any dought inform to police.

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Type	Genral Tatkal
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Email Address:
If any Quesion Contact +919374991671 Mail ID:- kishor.dama@gmail.com Thanq Kishor Dama

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Booking Indian Rail tickets from abroad: A Beginner’s Guide

IRCTC Railway Reservation Form

Fight with Tererist