score:3
Indian Railway accept online as well as offline ticket reservation for General and Tatkal tickets.
The Speciality of Tatkal means, the reservation start only 11:00 AM IST one day before the journey.
That is, if I want to travel on 05-04-2017, I can book only on or after 11:00 AM on 04-04-2017.
There is no refund on Confirmed Tatkal tickets. But for Waitlisted Tatkal tickets, the refund will be done (refund amount = ticket amount - 60 ).
I talked to some railway staffs whom I know personally know, about this and they told that if the reservation is failed, the refund process will be done automatically since it is done via Online.
Since I directly paid with Debit Card with pin, the refund amount will be automatically transferred to my bank.
When I checked the failed ticket history, it shows Payment settled. Now I have a proof that they received the amount.
The railway staff told me that it may take upto 7 days for the amount to get refunded.
Later when I checked ( after 5 days, the Refund status show refunded).
So, for bookings via IRCTC, if failed, refund will be done automatically.
If the ticket booking is successful but is waitlisted and didn't get confirmed before the journey, the refund will be done automatically within 7 days after the journey. Because of that, Waitlisted Online tickets can't be used to travel in General Compartment. Whereas offline waitlisted tickets can be used to travel in General Compartments