Bulk booking on IRCTC for Indian Railways trains: Planning a holiday with friends and family in the upcoming summer months? Have a family wedding to attend soon? If yes, then you must note that you can make bulk booking with Indian Railways to travel
in trains! The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which is the e-ticketing arm of Indian Railways has made the facility of booking tickets much easier.
in trains! The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which is the e-ticketing arm of Indian Railways has made the facility of booking tickets much easier.
However, bulk booking can only be done by going to the ticket booking centres as IRCTC allows only a maximum of six bookings, i.e., tickets for six people can be booked at once. In view of the upcoming summer months, bulk booking or party booking facility of Indian Railways will allow railway passengers to travel in groups for family holidays, official tours, marriage parties, education tours, religious groups and others.
How to do bulk booking in train:
1. The reservation under bulk booking for upto 50 passengers is permitted by the CRS (Chief Reservation Supervisor) or the shift-incharge. For up to 100 people, the booking is permitted by the Area Manager/ ATM/ACM/SM (Gaz.) For more than 100 people, the authority to permit group booking is with the Senior DCM/DTM or the Area Manager, and is based upon subject to availability of maximum 25 per cent of the total accommodation.
2. The bulk booking across New Delhi is made in the Reservation Complex, IRCA Building, though the service is available only at particular nominated counters. In other cities, not all railway stations provide bulk booking facility. Passengers must check in advance before visiting the station.
3. IRCTC being the e-ticketing firm, does not allow ordinary citizens to book bulk tickets online, but the concerned authorities mentioned above (Chief Reservation Supervisor etc) can make the bulk booking on IRCTC once the required documents have been submitted and approval has been granted.
4. After getting documents ready, a request letter has to be submitted to the concerned authority. If the journey is being authorised by a school/department/institution then along with the request letter, an issued certificate from the particular school/department or institution, has to be submitted to the authority. Similarly in case of marriage party or family function, the marriage card or the notarized affidavit along with the request letter have to be submitted.
5. Along with these documents, the list of people with their names, age, gender etc., who are traveling in a group, have to be submitted. Apart from the above mentioned documents, the person who is making the reservation has to submit the photocopy of his/her own identity card.
6. However, such booking of bulk ticketing is made available only after 10:00 AM on the computerized reservation system, which is subject to an overall limit on trains as per extant rules and the availability of accommodation.
7. Submit the request letter to the authorized officials giving details such as train number, date of journey and list of passengers, along with the required documents.
8. As per the Indian Railways guidelines, bulk booking is restricted for the opening day from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM.
9. At the stage of seeking the final permission, the names of passengers along with their age, gender, contact information have to be submitted in triplicate copies (three copies).
10. In case of name change of any group member in the bulk booking procedure, an application has to be submitted, at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train from the station. This application should be hand written by the head of the department/group/party. However, such request will be allowed only for once.
