IRCTC Booking Date Calculator

Sixty days, excluding the date of journey, for most trains under the general quota. That period was 120 days until 1 November 2024, so older guides and a good deal of advice still circulating are twice the current figure.

No, and that is what makes it a straight subtraction. Sixty days before 1 March is 31 December, not 1 January. The journey date is excluded from the count rather than being day one of it.

One day before the journey, and the hour depends on the class rather than the train: 10:00 for air-conditioned classes and 11:00 for sleeper and second sitting. Those two are frequently quoted the wrong way round.

The date is the thing that matters. IRCTC closes for a maintenance window overnight, so the practical answer is whenever the service is back rather than a precise minute, and on a route that fills the first hour is what decides confirmed against waitlisted.

Some trains carry a shorter advance period than the general one, holiday specials are released on their own schedule, and a few quotas open separately. A train that will not sell sixty days ahead is not necessarily a fault in the arithmetic.

Yes. It went from 120 days to 60 with effect from 1 November 2024. Bookings already made under the old window were honoured, which is why for a few months afterwards people were travelling on tickets bought further ahead than anyone could newly buy.