
CHENNAI: Even after eight years since the Tatkal ticket booking scandal using illegal software on the IRCTC portal came to light in New Delhi, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and other parts of the country, the railways is unable to fully address the portal’s vulnerabilities, allowing touts and agents to continue using illegal software to book tickets, particularly on high-demand routes. The regular arrest of touts and seizure of tickets by the RPF have failed to deter the malpractice.
On November 11 last year, TNIE, in an article, threw light on the difficulties passengers face due to IRCTC portal crash during Tatkal bookings, resulting in ticket unavailability. Meanwhile, agents are selling tickets for the same day at double the rate. However, neither the railways nor IRCTC could provide an explanation for these anomalies.
In this backdrop, the Southern railway on Monday announced that 2,003 individual and IRCTC user IDs and 119 agent IDs were blocked, and 10 different illegal software tools used for bulk and Tatkal ticket bookings have been disabled. It also disclosed the implementation of advanced AI technology to curb the use of illegal software in ticket booking. This system aims to detect and block suspicious transactions in real time, including multiple bookings from the same IP address or through VPNs.
In December 2017, a programmer with the CBI, a former employee of the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) that maintains the IRCTC portal, was arrested in New Delhi for selling illegal software to travel agents.
In this backdrop, the IRCTC introduced a feature that disabled ticket booking in less than 60 seconds and implemented various measures to prevent illegal software from transferring data to the IRCTC database. Despite these efforts, illegal software continues to enable users to bypass Captcha codes and bank OTPs, facilitating bulk and Tatkal ticket bookings.
Agents use multiple windows on computers or laptops, each with different user IDs, to book tickets more efficiently.
While the general public faces huge ordeal with frequent portal crashes and delays, software users consistently manage to book tickets within 10 to 20 seconds.
Over the past 10 months, rail passengers in Tamil Nadu and other states have been complaining about frequent IRCTC portal crashes during Tatkal bookings, resulting in ticket unavailability. However, travel agents have been exploiting the situation by selling tickets at exorbitant prices, particularly on high-demand routes such as Chennai/ Tiruchy to Howrah, Shalimar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jodhpur, New Delhi, and other northeastern cities, as well as Katpadi to West Bengal routes and Tiruppur/Erode to Bihar and other northern cities.
In response to recurring complaints, the railways on Monday outlined measures to curb the misuse of illegal software by agents. In Southern Railway zone alone, 391 cases were registered last year, leading to the apprehension of 404 touts and seizure of 7,506 tickets valued at Rs 1.2 crore last year.
Inspector General and Principal Chief Security Commissioner of Southern Railway G M Eswara Rao said AI systems will monitor booking behaviours to detect anomalies indicative of touting activities. Machine learning algorithms will identify and block suspicious transactions in real-time, including multiple bookings from the same IP address or those using VPNs.