New Delhi – The Indian Railways has rolled out a major reform in Tatkal ticket booking. From now on, IRCTC accounts linked with Aadhaar will get exclusive access during the crucial first 10 minutes of Tatkal ticket sales, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced.
This is a significant shift from the current system, where even authorized agents are barred from booking during the opening minutes. The move aims to curb unfair practices and offer priority booking access to genuine users.
Every day, around 2.25 lakh Tatkal tickets are booked online, and recent data from May 24 to June 2 reveals intense competition in the initial seconds:
- Out of 1.08 lakh AC Tatkal tickets, just 5,615 were booked in the first minute, followed by 22,827 in the second minute.
- An average of 67,159 AC tickets were booked in the first 10 minutes, making up 62.5% of total bookings.
In the non-AC segment, about 1.18 lakh tickets were booked daily online during the same period. Of these:
- 4,724 (4%) were snapped up in the first minute,
- 20,786 (17.5%) in the second minute,
- And a massive 84% were gone within one hour of opening.
What’s more revealing: 12% of Tatkal tickets were booked 8–10 hours after opening, raising flags about automated bot usage. IRCTC is also planning crackdowns on suspicious accounts, ensuring fairer access for real passengers.
This Aadhaar-linked priority system is being hailed as a pro-passenger, tech-driven step to make India’s railway booking system more transparent, secure, and efficient.
