How to Book Confirmed Tatkal Train Tickets [IRCTC]

Tatkal ticket is the only way when you have to travel by train in emergency. It can be booked 24 hours or 1 day before departure date of the train. Problem is that you don’t get Confirmed Tatkal Tickets easily due to heavy rush.

This article has been updated and revised from time to time since 2010 in accordance with IRCTC website.

Fortunately, as of today on 05th October 2014, IRCTC website loads very smoothly and fast even during 10:00 hrs to 12:00 hrs. Still, the problem of getting tatkal isn’t solved completely. More and more people have access to internet today as compared to 4 years back and with high speed internet and quick responding website, tatkal quota finishes off within 3-5 minutes.

As site loading issues are negligible these days, only thing we can bet on is form filling time.

In this article, we will learn how to automate form filling and payment option to get confirmed Tatkal ticket guaranteed.

Automating Travelers details by Pre-Filling

1. Day before booking, visit Magic Autofill where you can fill up traveler details along with berth preferences and phone number.
2. After filling all details, press I am feeling Lucky button.
3. Drag the Magic Autofill button to Bookmark toolbar of your browser.

This website has a form which exactly resembles the one at IRCTC.

Booking Procedure

1. Login to New Generation IRCTC website around 09:50-09:55 Hrs.
2. Enter Station names and date followed by Submit button. I assume you have prioritized your train to be booked.
3. Watch out for the clock timing on IRCTC website and notice the difference in timing of your computer clock.
4. Deciding the difference, press submit again as soon as the clock hits 10:00:00 hrs.
5. Press Tatkal radio button and select the class of travel given in front of respective trains.
6. Proceed to Booking
7. Press the bookmark button which we created to fill out traveler details.
8. Enter captcha manually and press next.

Automating Payment Methods

We generally prefer Internet banking for payment of Tatkal tickets but let me tell you why you shouldn’t. It involves entering username and password for login and then many banks require entering of transaction password. Moreover, banks like IDBI wants you to create One Time password for internet transaction received via SMS.

Entering three kind of passwords takes too much of time and you cannot automate bank password.

Solution is to use Credit Card or Debit Card.

Entering of Card number is done on IRCTC website itself which can be automated. Moreover, it just asks you to enter 3D secure password if enabled also called as  VBV (Verified by Visa) or MSC (Master SecureCode).

Tip: In case of 3D Secure, use VBV/MSC password instead of OTP which causes delay.

How to Automate Card details by Pre-filling

Update 07 Nov 2014: Copy and Pasting of script was creating errors for may user so, I have given the download link of the script in text format. Download Card Info filling script

Script made by Nitin Sapkal.

1. Copy the above script to notepad.
2. Replace the details highlighted in code. where:
   1234123412341234 refers to 16 digit Credit/Debit card number.11 refers to expiry month. November in my case so 11.
   2016 refers to year of expiry in YYYY format.
   123 refers to CVV code of card. These are 3 digits printed on rear/back side of card.
   Your Name is name printed on card.
3. Create new bookmark in your browser (Chrome or Firefox preferable) and in the location box, enter the above script.
4. Choose Credit Card /Payment Gateway and select the issuing bank. If it is not listed below, choose any VISA/MasterCard option without worrying about Bank name.
5. Press the bookmark created for filling up Card details and press Make Payment.

For those who don’t have credit card: All VISA/MASTER Debit cards (If enabled by card issuer) can also be used for ticket booking through any of the VISA/MASTER credit card Payment gateways (ICICI PG, HDFC PG, AXIS PG, CITI PG).

Here’s your ticket! Congratulations!!

Any Tatkal Booking Software?

Please avoid looking for them. There are some software programs spreading on internet under the name of IRCTC and CRIS for tatkal ticket booking but they are fake.

The one I tested is just a web browser opening IRCTC website inside it. It doesn’t help out in any way but installs crap toolbar on system and also tries to spy on you.

Please do not fool yourself by using any program named as IRCTC tatkal booking software.

What does CKWL Tatkal Ticket means?

In a rare case, it may happen that while moving on to bank webpage, you are shown Availability but till you come back, the ticket provided has status CKWL.

CKWL means the Waiting List in Tatkal Quota which differs from GNWL (General Waiting List). In my case, CKWL 5 was cleared up within 2 hours of booking but it may vary train to train.

The above procedure tries to minimize the time spent in filling up forms and speed up tatkal booking so, you can grab confirm tatkal ticket before the quota is over. Good Luck and let us know of your success rate in getting a confirm tatkal ticket.

You may feel that the procedure is too lengthy to follow but read it once completely, it will take time in first shot especially for non tech-savvy people but it is easy to follow and a matter of getting Confirmed Tatkal Tickets 🙂