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Indian Railways has taken a new step to facilitate passengers and make the ticket booking process more transparent. Now, when booking Tatkal tickets at railway reservation counters, passengers will be required to prove their identity through a one-time password (OTP) sent to their mobile phone. This new rule is especially applicable to passengers who wish to book tickets for travel at the last minute.

The Railway Ministry states that the primary objective of this move is to prevent misuse of the Tatkal ticket booking system and ensure that passengers can truly access high-demand tickets. For a long time, it has been observed that booking agents and some individuals have exploited the system to book excess tickets, leaving ordinary passengers behind. This new system will significantly reduce such problems.

What are the changes to Tatkal ticket booking at the reservation counters?

According to a report by news agency PTI, the Railway Ministry introduced the OTP-based Tatkal ticketing system on select trains as a pilot project on November 17th. Initially implemented on a limited number of trains, it has now been expanded to 52 trains and will be implemented at all train reservation counters in the next few days. Under this new system, when a passenger goes to a reservation counter to book an Tatkal ticket, they receive an OTP on the mobile number provided in the reservation form. The ticket is confirmed only after the OTP verification process is complete, meaning tickets cannot be booked without the OTP.

A major update for railway passengers

The Railway Ministry has clarified that this move is not only aimed at enhancing security, but also at ensuring passenger convenience and transparency. This will ensure genuine passengers can easily obtain tickets and prevent booking agents from misusing the system. However, this initiative is not new. The Ministry has previously taken several steps to ensure fairness in ticket booking. In July of this year, OTP-based Aadhaar verification was made mandatory for online Tatkal ticket bookings. Furthermore, starting October 1st, the first 15 minutes of booking reserved general tickets were reserved exclusively for Aadhaar-authenticated passengers. All these efforts are aimed at ensuring that the ticketing system is not misused and genuine passengers can easily plan their travel.