Big change in IRCTC Tatkal ticket booking: New rule mandates e-Aadhar; know details

In a major policy shift, the Indian Railways will soon make e-Aadhaar authentication mandatory for booking Tatkal tickets on its IRCTC platform. As per reports, the move is expected to be rolled out later this month as part of a broader strategy to crack down on fraudulent bookings and ensure fair access for genuine passengers.

A Gazette notification dated May 27, 2025, said, "The Ministry of Railways, Railway Board, hereby notifies that the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) be allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication, on a voluntary basis, to establish the identity of ticket-checking staff, crew members and passengers, using Yes/No or eKYC authentication facility." This move is soon expected to be mandatorily applied to all Tatkal ticket bookings.

Passengers booking tickets under the Tatkal quota will now be required to verify their identity using e-Aadhaar at the time of purchase.

Only users with Aadhaar-linked IRCTC accounts will be allowed to book tickets in the critical first 10 minutes of the booking window, effectively barring even authorised agents during that period.

The Ministry also issued a press statement in which it said that currently, there are more than 130 million active subscribers on the IRCTC website, of which only 12 million are Aadhaar-verified.

Crackdown on Fraudulent Users

Notably, this change follows a massive clean-up operation by IRCTC, which deactivated over 2.5 crore suspicious user IDs found to be exploiting the booking system. An internal probe revealed that around 2.9 lakh questionable PNRs were generated within just five minutes of booking windows opening, most of them for general and Tatkal tickets.

Between January and May 2025, IRCTC flagged over 6,800 disposable email domains, placed 20 lakh more accounts under review, and filed 134 complaints with the National Cyber Crime portal.

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Concerns Remain

Despite technical upgrades and increased transparency claims, passengers continue to raise concerns. While IRCTC reports that the attempt-to-booking ratio has improved, from 43.1% in October 2024 to 62.2% in May 2025, many feel that third-party platforms still gain an unfair advantage, and ordinary users remain at a disadvantage.

The upcoming Aadhaar-linked booking system is the latest in a series of measures to rebuild trust and restore fairness in one of the world’s busiest railway networks.

With inputs from PTI