Early touts still worming their way to catch rail tickets

AHMEDABAD: It was only recently that the Railways decided to increase the advance reservation period from 60 days to 120 days, so that genuine ticket buyers can plan their journey early and get tickets. However, this has proved to be a dud. Try booking an e-ticket around Diwali vacation and you may notice the 'no room' sign flash on your screen against most trains from Ahmedabad.
If you are looking for a ticket in Coimbatore Express or Mysore Express to Bangalore from Ahmedabad, the system does not allow booking. "I tried booking for November 15 and within 15 minutes the system did not allow me to book a waitlisted ticket," said Beena Parmar, a resident of Satellite.
In another case on Sunday at 8 am, the booking for Okha-Ernakulam Express opened for November 19 and by 8.30, the train had already flashed a 'wait list' ticket. A three-tier AC ticket was waitlisted at 26 and for a sleeper it was waitlisted at nine. Interestingly, if you are trying for a ticket for October 14, this train has some seats available.
It was in May 2013 that the railways had reduced the advance reservation period from 120 days to 60 days, claiming that agents take advantage of the 120 days reservation period and buy tickets in bulk and sell them for 119 days and return the unsold ones on the last day. A senior officer admitted that agents book a large number of tickets with just initials and not complete names. For example a ticket for Ashok Patel becomes A Patel, or Kiran Shah become K Shah. Now the same can be used by the agent to sell to a person whose name starts with K.