IRCTC’s new feature: Check vacant train seats, reservation chart online

New Delhi: Running behind the TTE for vacant seats in trains will now become a thing of the past. The Indian Railways has started displaying reserved charts online to allow passengers to see the status of the seats while booking their tickets in a particular train. Inaugurating the facility on Wednesday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the reservation charts will now be available for public viewing on the internet and will help prospective passengers in getting information of vacant berths in the train after preparation of the chart. 'Complete information of vacant berths from train source as well as intermediate locations will be available to the user. Prospective customer can use the information for onboard booking of vacant berths by TTE as per business rules. This feature is available in web as well as mobile version. This will make the entire process transparent,' PTI quoted Piyush Goyal as saying.

Here is how you can check reservation charts on the IRCTC website:

• 1. On the IRCTC website, a new option of view 'Charts/Vacancy' is available.
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• 2. You need to provide journey details, such as train number, journey date and boarding station.
  
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3. After that the class-wise and coach-wise number of vacant berths can be seen.

4. You can also click on a specific coach to see the layout along with berth-wise accommodation status.

Here is all you need to know about IRCTC's new feature:

• Just like booking a ticket in an airline, Indian Railways' website, IRCTC, will display the seating layout with different colours to show the seats that are booked, vacant and partially booked, said a PTI report.
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• This new system will display coach layout of nine classes used in the reserved trains of the Indian Railways and more than 120 different coach layouts have been incorporated.
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• This feature displays class-wise and coach-wise vacant berth availability information as per the first chart of the train. The first chart is prepared four hours in advance of train departure.
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• If the second chart is also prepared, then the option to view the details of vacant berths available at the time of second chart will also be displayed. The second chart is prepared about 30 minutes prior to the departure of the train.
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