MUMBAI: A Western Railway investigation has unearthed a syndicate of touts which sells tatkal tickets mainly on trains plying between Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow .

Touts in Mumbai book tatkal tickets from city reservation counters for the next day's travel from destinations like Delhi, Lucknow or Gorakhpur, especially towards the end of summer when counters in those cities are more crowded. Sources said the tickets, booked within the first few minutes after tatkal counters open, are immediately sent on the first available train from Mumbai, or even flights and courier services, to destinations in north India. The most popular destinations are Gorakhpur, Basti, Gonda and Lucknow stations, connected by trains like Kushinagar Express, Avadh Express, Gorakhpur-LTT Superfast Express and Pushpak Express. The tickets are sold to passengers in those cities at 50-100% above their original price.

A senior WR official said, "It is a systematic and well-oiled network which earns lakhs of rupees every month. We stumbled upon this racket after an analysis of bookings at our Passenger Reservation System (PRS) revealed most agents had booked four berths in one tatkal PNR, which is extremely unusual." The tatkal scheme allows a maximum of four berths per PNR. The official said, "We realized the name for which an ID card is used to book the ticket is genuine, the remaining three are mostly fictitious."

Explaining the modus operandi, he said, "At the fag end of summer, touts find it easy to book return tickets from Mumbai as the rush at reservation centres here is less, with people more keen to return from other cities. On an average, the first two persons standing in the queue have a bright chance of getting a confirmed ticket."

While tatkal bookings open at 10am, the quota is filled up in less than five minutes. Tickets for trains which depart in the evening reach those cities by morning the same day, or afternoon. For example, Kushinagar Express leaves Gorakhpur by 7pm. Likewise, the Gorakhpur LTT-Superfast Express leaves Gorakhpur at 9.35pm while Pushpak Express leaves Lucknow at 7.45pm.

An official said, "The touts also have Plan B in case the train from Mumbai arrives here late. They then issue an e-ticket print-out, which is not valid as the original ticket has been issued at a PRS centre. However, many of the ticket checking staff are also hand-in-glove and allow people to travel on invalid e-tickets."

