I am planning to book 1AC with coupe preference for me and my wife to travel to Hyderabad from Chennai. There are two trains with 1AC availability - 12603 - Hyderabad Exp, 12759 - Charminar Exp Both these trains have 1HAC coach where it is half 1AC / half 2AC or 3AC. Usually, the seat layout says 2 cabins and 1 coupe which is a total of 10 1AC seats. But the availability chart shows 8 tickets only for these two train on any day. Are two seats blocked for tatkal booking? or this train has only 8 seats (2 cabins without a coupe)
Hello there and welcome to the forum! These missing tickets/seats are under the HO Quota. To find them, go to the IRCTC website or any other website for the Indian Railways. From there, choose your two stations, from where you come from and what is your destination. In this case, it's Chennai to Hyderabad. After you've done that, choose a date and from the Quota Menu, choose Parliament. You would see that the Hyderabad Express Train No. 12603, Charminar Express Train No. 12759 and Kacheguda Express Train No. 17651 has these types of HO Quotas. Furthermore, these HO Quotas are available not only for the 1A but also for 2A, 3A and SL. So what exactly are these HO Quotas? HO means High Official and hence, these tickets are reserved for any individuals from the Parliament or VIPS who would like to travel via train. HO Quota is also known as Emergency Quota or VIP Quota. They cannot be booked online nor through tatkal booking. These seats can be used by normal passengers, provided they have an emergency situation. These can be instances like medical emergencies, meeting of a family member in an emergency and the likes. You can request for it through the Divisional Railway Manager office and explain your situation and show some proof of your emergency. If they approve of your request, then you would be granted these seats. However, for non-emergency situations, it's highly unlikely that these seats would be given to you. I hope this helps.
