New Emergency Quota Rules: There is a significant update for those who depend on using the railway’s emergency quota to purchase tickets. The guidelines for filing emergency quota requests have been updated by Indian Railways. The Railway Ministry has released new guidelines that require passengers to submit their requests at least one day before the train’s scheduled departure time. Here are additional details regarding the updated guidelines that the Ministry has disclosed.
What are the new Emergency Quota rules?
The Ministry of Railways sent a circular on Tuesday on the modification to the emergency quota regulations.
New Emergency Quota Rules:
Why did emergency quota rules change?
The Railway Ministry changed the deadline for filing emergency quota requests after it decided to finalize the reservation chart eight hours before a train’s departure. The Railway Board earlier recommended preparing the reservation chart eight hours in advance instead of four. For trains departing before 14:00, officials were supposed to complete the chart by 21:00 on the previous day.
Officials also discussed modifying the Railways’ passenger reservation system. As of July 1, the Railways changed the Tatkal booking guidelines. Now, only authenticated users can book Tatkal tickets. According to the updated regulations, authorities will no longer consider requests submitted on the day of the train’s departure. The Ministry now requires passengers to submit emergency quota requests for Sundays and public holidays, especially for trains departing on or after such days, during working hours on the last working day before the holiday.
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The circular stated that prominent bureaucrats, VIPs, railway officials, and representatives of other government departments frequently send requests to the Railway Board’s reservation cell. The statement added, “Officials make every effort to allot the quota judiciously and with common prudence.”
To prevent delays in chart preparation, which could inconvenience passengers and potentially delay train departures, the ministry instructed all staff to follow the updated schedule. It also directed the forwarding authority to verify the identity of the individual and strictly follow the current rules for emergency quota allocation.
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