Indian Railways passengers note! Is your IRCTC account Aadhaar-verified? Tatkal tickets won’t be possible otherwise..

Indian Railways is planning to make the Tatkal ticketing process more robust by making some of the rules more stringent, like only Aadhar verified accounts will be allowed to book online Tatkal tickets, Aadhar based OTP authentication shall also be required for booking. Sources said that counter based tatkal ticket may also be booked after Aadhar verification to control malpractices.

“Indian Railways will soon start using e-Aadhaar authentication to book Tatkal tickets. This will help genuine users get confirmed tickets during need,” said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The move is being seen after Dr A. Velumani, the founder of Thyrocare, shared the viral image on X from Stocks which claimed that the IRCTC website hangs at 10 a.m. even when seats are available. Velumani said on X, “Shocking. If it is true, it is betrayal. !!”

“We too had similar chronic peak server load problem in #Thyrocare. We could not afford costly spare servers. But we solved it by staggering it. My managers were wise. If it is really server problem from 8 am to 6 pm allow 1/10 of trains booking every hour. It is server optimization. Please retweet this till concerned people put an end to this,” He further posted on X

Vaishnaw on Friday said a passenger, who has bought physical ticket from the ticket counter can cancel it online through the IRCTC website or 139, but one has to visit the reservation centre for collecting the amount.

The issue was raised by BJP MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni, who asked whether the passengers who have purchased waiting tickets from counter as opposed to etickets are required to visit the station before the train’s departure for ticket cancellation.

“Waitlisted PRS counter ticket shall be cancelled across the reservation counter on surrendering of the original PRS counter ticket as per time limit prescribed in Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules 2015,” Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.