If you’ve ever tried to buy Tatkal tickets and discovered that there are no available tickets, an update could soon help. The Indian Railways plans to introduce a new process for Tatkal tickets to fight ticket fraud and offer limited seats to people who deserve them.
Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on the X social media platform that e-Aadhaar verification is going to become necessary during Tatkal booking. Thanks to this move, there should be fewer fake IDs, fewer attempts to manipulate agents and fewer booking bots, making it simpler for common travelers to get confirmed boarding tickets.
What constitutes the new rule?
Under this guideline, passengers have to tie their Aadhaar card to their IRCTC account and finish a digital verification when booking Tatkal tickets.
How Do Passengers Benefit From UAV?
According to Economic Times, only passengers whose IRCTC accounts have been linked to their Aadhaar will be able to book tickets during the initial ten minutes after Tatkal tickets are available. Because of this, not even agents of IRCTC will be allowed to book tickets during this period, protecting ticket buyers from fraudulent activities. At the time of booking a ticket, the OTP will be sent to passengers for completing the verification.
The reason this rule was introduced.
By making this decision, the railways aim to stop agents and automated bots from taking most of the seats available in Tatkal. It is shown by railways data that a significant portion of Tatkal tickets are reserved within the initial 10 minutes of opening the sale. In this past year, the platform blocked 3.5 crore fake user IDs as a part of their efforts.
When Will the System Come into Effect?
Officials from the railways have revealed that by the end of this month, e-Aadhaar verification can be introduced.
Booking your tickets on trains by using voice features is now an option.
Passengers are now allowed to book or cancel their train tickets by communicating their requests to IRCTC’s AI chatbot AskDISHA 2.0 through voice commands. It is possible to use Hindi, English, Gujarati and other languages in the chatbot which cuts down the need for an IRCTC password.
We’ll keep you up to date about this passenger-friendly adjustment which is bound to make booking Tatkal tickets a fairer experience for all.