CHENNAI: Nearly six months after making Aadhaar verification mandatory for booking tatkal e-tickets, the Indian Railways has also made that mandate a prerequisite for booking general reservation tickets on the first day of the advance reservation period through the IRCTC portal. The new rule, which comes into effect on January 12, has been introduced to ensure that advanced bookings are done only by genuine passengers.
However, passengers booking paper tickets at reservation counters can continue to do so as usual by submitting the reservation form along with any valid identity document.
According to an order issued by the Railway Board, passengers who have not completed Aadhaar verification on the IRCTC portal will not be allowed to book tickets on the opening day of reservations, which begins 60 days before the scheduled departure of a train. The booking window opens at 8 am.
The notification further stated that from December 29, only Aadhaar-validated users will be permitted to book tickets between 8 am and noon. This restriction will be extended from 8 am to 4 pm, starting January 5. From January 12, ticket bookings from 8 am to midnight will be available exclusively to Aadhaar-validated users. The Railway Board, in its December 18 order, said the expansion of Aadhaar verification for general class reservations aims to ensure that tickets are purchased only by genuine passengers.
Official sources justified the move, noting that tickets on high-demand routes continue to sell out within minutes of the booking window opening at 8 am. “On popular routes such as Chennai-Howrah, Chennai-New Delhi, Chennai-Jaipur/Jodhpur, Chennai-Mangaluru, and others, tickets are quickly exhausted,” an official said.
New system will help prevent misuse of passenger IDs by agents: Official
“This measure will ensure that genuine passengers benefit from the bookings,” the official added. Similarly, tickets for the Mettupalayam-Udagamandalam toy train operated by the Nilgiris Mountain Railway witness year-round demand and sell out within minutes. “During peak seasons, agents resell these tickets at prices ranging from `2,000 to `4,000. The new system will help prevent misuse of passenger identities by agents,” the official said.
It may be recalled that the Indian Railways made Aadhaar validation mandatory for tatkal e-ticket bookings from July 1 this year. It also introduced OTP-based verification, though not for all trains. Currently, 35 trains operated by the Southern Railway are covered under OTP-based ticket booking out of 340 trains across India. These include five recently-added services: Navajivan Express, Coromandel Express, Alappuzha-Dhanbad Express, Chennai Egmore-CSMT Express, and Chennai Central-Mumbai CSMT Express.
New ticket booking rule:
Apart from tatkal bookings, Aadhaar validation will be extended to general reservations as well
From December 29, only Aadhaar-validated users will be permitted to book tickets on the first day of the booking window (60 days in advance) between 8 am and 12 pm (noon)
From January 5 next year, bookings will be allowed from 8 am to 4 pm
From January 12 next year, only Aadhaar-validated users will be able to book tickets throughout the day
Aadhaar validation were mandatory for tatkal bookings from July 1 this year
Additionally, OTP-based authentication will be introduced for select trains