Rly ticket booking only via Aadhaar for 15 mins upon opening from Oct

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Continuing its drive to make train tickets more accessible to the public, the ministry of railways has decided to keep general ticket reservations open only through Aadhaar-based authentication for a brief window of time when bookings open.

 

“With a view to ensure that the benefits of the reservation system reach the common end user and are not misused by unscrupulous elements, it has been decided that, with effect from October 1, during the first 15 minutes of the opening of general reservation, reserved general tickets can be booked through the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) or its app only by Aadhaar-authenticated users,” the ministry said in a circular issued on Monday.

 

The ministry clarified that there will be no change in the timings of general reserved ticket bookings through computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters of Indian Railways at present.

 

“There shall also be no change in the 10-minute restriction at the opening of general reservation during which authorised ticketing agents of Indian Railways are not allowed to book opening-day reserved tickets,” the circular added.

 

This is the second instance of the government mandating Aadhaar authentication to curb mass bookings by agents, which has often blocked genuine users’ access to tickets and led to large waiting lists.

 

In June, the ministry ended the practice of mass booking without authentication through the Tatkal window. From July, Aadhaar-based one-time password (OTP) authentication was made mandatory for online Tatkal bookings. Tatkal tickets booked at PRS counters and through authorised agents now also require OTP authentication sent to the mobile number provided by the user at the time of booking.

 

To prevent bulk bookings during the critical opening period, authorised Indian Railways ticketing agents have also been barred from booking opening-day Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the booking window.