IRCTC Tatkal ticket booking will require Aadhaar from July 1
The Indian Railways on Wednesday (June 11, 2025) announced new rules to the Tatkal ticket booking system. One of the most prominent ones among these is that Aadhaar-based identification will soon be mandatory to book railway tickets online.
'Effective from July 1, Tatkal tickets booked through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation's (IRCTC) official website and mobile app will be available only to users authenticated with Aadhaar,' a spokesperson of the Ministry of Railways said.
The spokesperson also added that Aadhaar-based OTP authentication will become mandatory for all online Tatkal bookings from July 15.
The Ministry has also made provisions for offline Tatkal bookings. 'Tatkal tickets booked at computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and through authorised agents will require OTP authentication sent to the mobile number provided by the user at the time of booking,' the spokesperson said. This provision will also come into effect from July 15.
The Indian Railways has also barred authorised ticketing agents from booking opening-day Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the respective booking windows, in order to prevent bulk bookings during the critical opening window. 'For AC classes, this restriction applies from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and for non-AC classes, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.,' the spokesperson said.
Ahead of these changes, IRCTC had deactivated 2.5 crore suspect user IDs as part of a digital overhaul of its ticketing infrastructure, on June 4, 2025. 'Through the deployment of anti-bot systems and integration with a leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) service provider, the Railways has curbed unauthorised automated bookings by unscrupulous agents and improved the access of the website to the genuine users,' a senior Railway official said. '131 complaints of the suspicious users have been lodged with the cybercrime cell in the last four months.'
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