Tatkal Ticket Booking Gets Safer: Aadhaar-Based OTP Now Mandatory from July 15

Railways bans agents from early Tatkal bookings and rolls out Aadhaar-linked OTP verification for all users to curb misuse and enhance transparency.

New Delhi: 15 July 2025

New Tatkal Rules from July 15: Aadhaar OTP Must for All Bookings, Agents Restricted in First 30 Minutes

The Indian Railways is making drastic changes to the Tatkal ticket booking system from July 15, 2025. Tatkal bookings, with the limited quota in Tatkal scheme, will now need Aadhaar OTP authentication for each Tatkal booking, whether online via IRCTC or offline at PRS counters or at authorized agents. This thus a way to deter fraudulent practices and ensure passengers are carrying out genuine bookings.

In order to book under the Tatkal Scheme, the new practice has passengers entering the Aadhaar number and the mobile number linked to Aadhaar and receive a One-Time Password (OTP) on it and only after successful OTP verification can conduct the required ticket booking.

Furthermore, in order to deter agents undertaking bulk booking, the Railways also made the decision to restrict agents booking during the first 30 minutes.

• For AC classes: Agents are restricted between 10:00 AM and 10:30 AM.
• For non-AC classes: no bookings can be made by agent’s between 11:00 AM and 11:30 AM.

Railway authorities suggested users to link their Aadhaar with the IRCTC account and to ensure that their mobile number linked with Aadhaar is ‘active’ and ‘updated’, to avoid disruption in booking tickets.

These reforms are part of a larger initiative to improve transparency, prevent ticket booking fraud, and provide more public access to the highly demanded Tatkal tickets when they will be booked first.

To have a smoother experience passengers should update their IRCTC profiles, while becoming familiar with the most recent booking process.

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