NEW DELHI DEC 11 : Aadhaar-based OTP verification has now been rolled out for online Tatkal ticket booking on 322 trains, a move that has reportedly increased the window for getting confirmed Tatkal tickets on these services by about 65 per cent.
The same Aadhaar-linked OTP check is also being introduced at reservation counters in phases, and is currently in place for 211 trains, leading to longer confirmed Tatkal availability times in about 95 per cent of 96 high-demand trains, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s statement in Lok Sabha. The measures are aimed at curbing misuse, improving fairness, and ensuring genuine passengers have a better chance of securing tickets.
Railways has carried out large-scale cleansing of user accounts, deactivating around 3.02 crore suspicious user IDs since January 2025. Anti-bot solutions and cybercrime complaints for dubious PNRs are being used to block non-genuine bookings and protect the system from automated abuse.
To secure the ticketing infrastructure, multiple security layers such as firewalls, intrusion prevention tools, web application protections and end-to-end encryption are deployed in a dedicated, access-controlled data centre certified under ISO 27001 ISMS standards. RailTel’s cyber threat intelligence, deep and dark web monitoring, and regular audits by CERT-In-empanelled agencies, along with continuous traffic monitoring by CERT-In and NCIIPC, further strengthen defences against cyberattacks.
