Booking a confirmed tatkal ticket with Indian Railways has been a dream for many train travellers in India. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)’s website irctc.co.in often hangs, slows down and delays booking by individual passengers. This often leads to outrage among passengers who get waitlisted tickets despite efforts and payment deductions. Notably, the Indian Railways and IRCTC have been working to resolve this issue and make tatak ticket booking by individual passengers smooth.
Now, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced a change in the booking rules for tatkal tickets. The rule will come into effect soon, said Vaishnaw. “Bharatiya Railways will soon start using e-Aadhaar authentication to book Tatkal tickets. This will help genuine users get confirmed tickets during need,” said the minister on X.
With e-Aadhar authentication, the passenger will get OTP on their mobiles and they will have to verify it on the IRCTC ticket booking website. This will weed out fake users/passengers/agents who often book tickets and sell it in black at higher prices to those in need. Aadhaar authentication will help the railways verify the passenger’s info and thus, reduce the burden on servers by removing fake users.
“Users not authenticated via Aadhaar can book Opening ARP, Tatkal or Premium Tatkal tickets only after 3 days of registration, while Aadhaar-verified users can book tickets without delay,” said Indian Railways in a statement.
Indian Railways recently said that its AI-powered system has identified and deactivated over 2.5 crore suspicious user IDs used for ticket reservations during tatkal hours. The Indian Railways said that it has deployed advanced anti-BOT systems and integrated services from a leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) provider.
The railways said the enhanced system has shown remarkable efficiency during peak Tatkal booking hours, a period when bot traffic can make up nearly 50% of login attempts within the initial five minutes.