Railways: Tatkal railway ticket booking will not be possible without Aadhaar authentication, new rules will be applicable from July 1..

To prevent fraud in railway ticket booking and to ensure that common people get the benefit of the Tatkal ticket scheme, the Railway Ministry has made changes to this scheme. From July 1, only those users will be able to book Tatkal tickets who have verified their account with Aadhaar. The circular issued by the Railway Ministry on June 10 reads, "From 01.07.2025, tickets under the Tatkal scheme through the website/app of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) can be booked only by Aadhaar-verified users. After this, Aadhaar-based OTP verification will also be made mandatory for Tatkal booking from 15.07.2025." Along with the online ticket booking system, the new rule will also apply to counter tickets. “Tatkal tickets can be booked only through computerized PRS (Passenger Reservation System) counters/authorized agents of Indian Railways, and will require authentication of system generated OTP, which will be sent to the mobile number provided by the user at the time of booking. This rule will be implemented from 15.07.2025,” the circular said.

What do the new rules say?

As per the new rule, authorized ticketing agents of Indian Railways will not be allowed to book Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of opening of booking, whether AC or non-AC. This means that agents will not be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from 10 am to 10.30 am for AC classes and from 11 am to 11.30 am for non-AC classes.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which is the technical department of the Indian Railways, and IRCTC have been directed to make necessary changes in the system by informing all the zonal railways. According to Railway Ministry data, every day around 2,25,000 passengers book Tatkal tickets through the Indian Railways' online platform.

An analysis of online Tatkal ticket booking patterns by the Railways from May 24 to June 2 showed that on average 5,615 out of 1,08,000 AC class tickets were booked in the first minute. A total of 22,827 tickets were booked in the second minute. In the AC class, on average 67,159 tickets, or 62.5 percent of Tatkal tickets were booked online in the first 10 minutes. The remaining 37.5 per cent of tickets were booked from 10 minutes till chart preparation, of which 3.01 per cent were booked after 10 hours of opening of the Tatkal window.

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