The Ministry of Railways has amended the scheme to prevent malpractices by agents and to ensure that the common people get Tatakal Ticket Scheme. Since July, only those users who have certified their account using Aadhaar will be able to book Tatakal tickets.
“With effective from 01.07.2025, tickets under the Tatkal Scheme can be booked only by Aadhaar certified users through the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)/its app. Later, Aadhaar-based OTP authentication will be released from 15.07.2025.
Along with online ticket booking system, the new rule will also be applied to counter tickets. “Tatkal tickets will be available for booking through computerized PRS (passenger reservation system) of Indian Railways/authorized agents, which are only after the authentication of OTP generated OTP, which will be sent through the system to the mobile number equipped by the user at the time of booking. It will also be applied till 15.07.2025.”
According to the new rule, the authorized ticketing agents of Indian Railways will not be allowed to book Tatakal tickets during the first 30 minutes of opening the booking for non-AC travel classes. This means that agents will not be allowed to book tatal tickets for air-conditioned classes from 10 am to 10.30 am and non-air air-conditioned classes from 11 am to 11.30 am.
The Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the technical wing of Indian Railways, and IRCTC have been asked to make necessary amendments in the system as per the information for all zonal railways.
According to the data available with the Ministry of Railways, every day, about 2,25,000 passengers book tatal tickets through the online platform of Indian Railways.
The analysis of the online tatal ticket booking pattern from May 24 to June 2 shows that 5,615 out of 1,08,000 AC class tickets were booked in the first minute after the opening of the window. A total of 22,827 tickets were booked in the second minute. In the AC category, 67,159 tickets or 62.5 percent of the Tatakal tickets were booked online within the first 10 minutes of the window opening. The remaining 37.5 percent of the ticket charts were booked between 10 minutes till the preparation of the ticket, out of which 3.01 percent were booked after 10 hours of the Tatakal ticket window.
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In non-AC category, from 24 May to 2 June, 1,18,567 tickets were booked online daily. Of these, 4,724 tickets – about 4 percent – were booked within the first minute, while 20,786 tickets – about 17.5 percent – were booked in the second minute. After the window opening, about 66.4 percent of the tickets were sold within the first 10 minutes and the remaining tickets were then booked.
A senior Railway Ministry official said that the proposal of the E-AADHAAR certification system is part of the campaign against the use of automated equipment to book tickets online.
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