Railway to mandate Aadhaar verification to book Tatkal tickets

New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Railway is set to mandate the use of e-Aadhaar to authenticate to book Tatkal tickets. The move comes a week after the ministry had authorised the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) to authenticate a passenger's Aadhaar ID to establish his or her identity.

A Gazette notification dated May 27, said, "The Ministry of Railways, Railway Board, hereby notifies that the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) be allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication, on a voluntary basis, to establish the identity of ticket-checking staff, crew members and passengers, using Yes/No or eKYC authentication facility."

Almost a week after the notification, Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed the plans of Aadhar verification for Tatkal tickets. "Bharatiya Railways will soon start using e-Aadhaar authentication to book Tatkal tickets. This will help genuine users get confirmed tickets during needed," he said. 

Railway officials say that at present, IRCTC does get Aadhaar authentication done through a third party, but after the Gazette notification, it will be much easier and faster to get the authentication done. "Ticket-checking staff and crew members have also been brought under its ambit for official purposes," the official added.

The Ministry also issued a press statement in which it said that currently, there are more than 130 million active subscribers on the IRCTC website, of which only 12 million are Aadhaar-verified. "IRCTC has decided to conduct special verification for all accounts that are not authenticated with Aadhaar. Accounts found to be suspicious will be closed. The railways aim to ensure that genuine passengers receive all types of Tatkal tickets," it said.

"Account holders who link their accounts with Aadhaar will get priority booking during the first 10 minutes of Tatkal ticket sales. Even authorised IRCTC agents are not allowed to book tickets within the first 10 minutes of the Tatkal window opening. Therefore, it has become necessary to verify your IRCTC account through Aadhaar," it added.

The Ministry said that the Railways is planning to make the Tatkal ticketing process more robust by making some of the rules more stringent like only Aadhaar-verified accounts will be allowed to book online Tatkal tickets, and Aadhaar-based OTP authentication shall also be required for booking.

Sources said that counter-based tatkal tickets may also be booked after Aadhaar verification to control malpractices. According to the Gazette notification, the process for Aadhaar authentication is voluntary, and a passenger has to give his or her consent for it.