Since the time IRCTC has blocked Quick Book link, getting confirmed tatkal ticket has become

even harder. Its has become almost impossible to get confirmed tatkal ticket the traditional way. This has forced me to find another trick to get confirmed tatkal ticket. We are going to see the whole procedure in two steps. It is a lengthy process. So stay focused. Requirement To use this technique, you need to have Firefox browser. Install firefox browser if you dont have it. You also need to install Firebug extension. Once you have firefox browser with firebug extension, you are ready to use this technique. Start The Booking I frequently need to book tickets between NAGPUR (NGP) and AHMEDABAD JN (ADI). So I am going to show you the process of booking tatkal ticket between these two stations. The whole process is divided in two parts and this process works only with trains running daily. Lets start the process. Part 1: Assume that you are booking ticket on 7th of July, before 8:00 AM and you want to book the ticket for 9th July from ADI to NGP. We want to book ticket in HOWRAH EXPRESS (12833) for 3A class. I am taking HOWRAH EXPRESS as an example because it runs daily. Now initiate the tatkal booking process for 8th of July. But wait, we need ticket for 9th of July. Why am I booking for 8th of July? Well, this process needs you to do so. I will explain the full details later in part 2. As for now, just do as I say. We are not going to actually book the ticket on 8th of July. We will just initiate the booking procedure and stop it when we reach up to the payment gateway page as shown in below.

Now click on the Plan my Travel link from the navigation bar. Here starts our part-2 where we actually book ticket for 9th of July. Part 2: Since you already started the booking procedure, you now have all form details pre-filled. Select the journey date 9th of July and select quota as General.

Again the question comes in mind Why select quota as General? Well, if you select quota as Tatkal for 9 th of July, and assuming that you are booking on 7th of July, before 8:00AM, you wont be able to pass the first page. You will get the following error.

So to avoid the above error, we select the quota as General. We will change the quota in the middle of booking process using the firebug extension. Now start the booking process. Click on Find Train. Select the train and class. You will have all the forms already pre-filled by IRCTC web site. When you reach on the Passenger Details page, press F12 key. F12 key opens firebug module in your browser as shown in below image.

In the firebug console, search (top-right corner) for quota as shown in following image.

In the console, you need to change the value=GN to value=CK.

Now close the firebug, enter the captcha and click on Go button. On the Next screen, check the quota detail. It should show Tatkal as quota. You will get the next screen with error. Just ignore the error and click on Make Payment button.

If you havent performed the part 1, then you wont get Make Payment button option. Without that option, you cant go ahead. You will be stuck on that page and you will have to do the whole procedure again. So now you know how important is part 1 process. Now you have reached to the payment gateway page. So as soon as its 8:00AM in your computer clock, select your prefer payment gateway. Give the payment details and your ticket booking process is complete. So using the above technique you bypass first 3 steps of booking process. You just have to perform only one step in order to complete the ticket booking. This technique is even quicker than Quick Book link.

Important Notes Make sure that your computer clock shows exact same time of IRCTC server. Complete all steps before 8:00AM. You have to be on payment gateway selection page when its 8:00AM. If you complete all steps before 7:56AM then you need to keep session active. Otherwise when you select payment gateway, you will get session expire error. To keep the session active, visit the following link in another browser of your system. https://www.irctc.co.in/cgi-bin/bv60.dll/irctc/services/servicesNTerms.do? LinkValue=5&voucher=29&BV_SessionID=SESSIONID&BV_EngineID=BV_EngineID You need to change SESSIONID(RED) and BV_EngineID (RED) with your current session ID and BV Engine ID. You can find those values in URL. Visiting the above URL every 3 minutes keeps your session active. This technique works only with trains running daily. If you need to book ticket on train running only 1 or 2 days of week, then you will have to perform few more steps. I will address that situation in my next post. Since its complex procedure, I am sure you will have questions in your mind. Asks your question in comment and I will be here to answer your questions. UPDATE: An update to this post has been published. Check that post here: Booking tatkal tickets for trains running 1 or 2 days a week.
In my previous post about IRCTC tatkal booking, I showed a trick to book confirmed tatkal ticket. That trick is limited to book tickets on trains running daily. If you want to book a tatkal ticket on a train running only one or two days a week then you will have to do it differently. First, if you havent read my previous post, read it now otherwise you will not understand this post. So our basic strategy is like this. In first part we start the booking process for thetatkal ticket whose fair is exactly same as of the ticket we want. Now since we are booking ticket on the train running once or twice a week, we cant start tatkal booking process for the same train on previous day. In short, we cant start part 1 process from our previous post. Sound Complex? Its not. Let me take an example. Lets assume that I want to book ticket between AHMEDABAD JN (ADI) and NAGPUR (NGP) for 14 th July, 2011. Its Thursday. I want ticket on PRERANA EXPRESS (11453) which runs only on Thursday. Ill have to start booking process on 12th July before 8:00AM. Since the train doesnt run on 12 th July or 13th July, I cant start part 1 process from our previous post. Without performing part 1 process, I cant get Make Payment button. So what to do now? Simple. Search for two stations and train for which fare is same as of ticket on PRERANA EXPRESS between ADI to NGP. Also make sure that the new train runs on 12th July or 13th July because those are two days on which you can start tatkal booking process. Find New Stations & Train Now the question comes, how to find that type of train and stations? Use Google. There is a web site indiarailinfo.com which keeps track of all trains and fare between all stations. So we will have to put just one query and we will come up with our train and stations. Lets continue our example. Fare between ADI to NGP on PRERANA EXPRESS for General quota for 3A is Rs. 891. So to find new stations and train, you will have to just put following query in Google.

site:indiarailinfo.com Rs. 891 3A

Quick search relieves that train DELHI SR EXPRESS /19263 has same fare (Rs. 891) between Jamnagar(JAM) and Jaipur Junction(JP) and runs on Tuesday(12th July). Sometimes you might have to search deeper to find exact stations and train. Just keep looking. You will surely find new stations and train. So in part 1, we will start the process for booking tatkal ticket on 12th July between JAM and JP on DELHI SR EXPRESS for 3A class. Once we reach to the payment gateway page, we click on Plan My Travel link and start the part 2 process. Part 2 process is same as I have shown in previous post. So now you know how to book confirmed tatkal ticket. There is still one more technique which increases the chances of getting confirmed tatkal ticket. Lets review this technique too. Multiple Firefox Profiles Do you know that you can start multiple firefox profiles at the same time? You can initiate IRCTC booking process at the same time in all profiles. Sometimes it happens that IRCTC server becomes too slow and it takes too long to get response. You either get Service Unavailable error or no response at all. If you have started booking process in three different profiles then you will increase the change of getting response. In one profile, you might get service unavailable error but you wont get the same error in all profiles at the same time. So how to run multiple firefox profiles at the same time? Open firefoxs properties from the firefox shortcut on desktop. Add -P -no-remote to the target location as shown in following image.

Click on OK and open the firefox. That will open firefox profile manager.

You will have only default profile. Here you can create as many profiles as you like. I have 4 different profiles created just for IRCTC booking. You can run all profiles at the same time. If you are planning to use multiple profiles then you will have to install extensions separately on each profile. Payment Gateway Selection Payment gateway selection is also important in speeding up the booking process. Netbanking payment gateways are faster than giving credit card/debit card details. In my experience, I have seen that HDFC netbanking gateways is the fastest one. You can even increase the payment gateway login speed by saving the username and password. You just have to click on login button and done. Small-small things can increase your booking speed. I have given all tricks I was using to book confirmed tatkal ticket. Use these techniques and get ticket. Have safe & happy journey.

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