Indian Railways to Mandate e-Aadhaar Verification for Tatkal Ticket Bookings

Indian Railways to Mandate e-Aadhaar Verification for Tatkal Ticket Bookings

In a major policy overhaul, Indian Railways is set to make e-Aadhaar authentication mandatory for booking Tatkal tickets on the IRCTC platform. The move, expected to roll out later this month, aims to curb fraudulent bookings and ensure fair access for genuine passengers.

This decision follows a large-scale clean-up drive by IRCTC, which recently deactivated over 2.5 crore suspicious user IDs found exploiting the booking system. An internal investigation revealed that approximately 2.9 lakh dubious PNRs were generated within five minutes of booking windows opening, primarily under general and Tatkal quotas.

Between January and May 2025, IRCTC took aggressive action by:

• Flagging over 6,800 disposable email domains
• Placing 20 lakh user accounts under scrutiny
• Filing 134 cybercrime complaints with the National Cyber Crime portal

A Gazette notification dated May 27, 2025, stated that the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is authorized to conduct Aadhaar-based identity verification either via Yes/No or eKYC methods for passengers, ticket-checking staff, and train crew. Though currently voluntary, Aadhaar verification will soon be compulsory for all Tatkal bookings.

As part of the new policy:

• Only Aadhaar-verified IRCTC users will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets during the critical first 10 minutes of the booking window
• Authorized agents will be temporarily barred from Tatkal bookings during this initial period

At present, IRCTC has over 130 million active users, but only 12 million accounts are Aadhaar-verified. The upcoming mandate is part of a broader initiative to restore fairness and transparency across one of the world’s busiest railway networks.