Aadhaar-OTP mandatory for Tatkal: Railways streamlines quick ticket bookings.
Indian Railways has increased the sizeable reformation of its Tatkal ticket booking scheme by making the use of Aadhaar-inclined OTP imperative during the process of making short-notice socially striking ticket reservations.
No Aadhaar, No Tatkal: OTP Verification Now Mandatory, Says Indian Railways
Indian Railways has increased the sizeable reformation of its Tatkal ticket booking scheme by making the use of Aadhaar-inclined OTP imperative during the process of making short-notice socially striking ticket reservations. This new rule, which takes effect on July 15, 2025 is aimed at checking the misuse and increasing the transparency and also that the true passengers utilize the urgent booking facility.
Touts and automated robots made the usage of the Tatkal system difficult and touts used to exploit the system most of the times operated by bots controls and normal travellers found it difficult to get last-minute tickets. As a response to this, Indian Railways came up with a two-phased concept. All IRCTC users will have to provide their Aadhaar IDs as verification to receive Tatkal sales since July 1, 2025. The second and more important step, which will be introduced on July 15, 2025, is the use of Aadhaar-based OTP (One Time Password) whenever a Tatkal ticket is booked, either online by means of the IRCTC web portal or IRCTC mobile application, and at counters of the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and through authorized agents.
The way it is going to work is simple, a passenger will have to provide an OTP on the phone number linked to his or her Aadhaar when booking a Tatkal ticket. This is in all classes of traveling. Whether the booked ticket is of an authorized person or at a counter, OTP verification is needed before issuing the ticket as Aadhaar details of the passenger and registered mobile number are mandatory to be submitted to verify OTP.
The major goal of such a rigid action is equal access to opportunities and warding off of fraud. And the introduction of booking being tied to a persons unique Aadhaar ID would ensure that the person cannot make bulk bookings and this could be done by verifying the booking using OTP in real time. This even helps to eliminate the possibility of the presence of bots or special programs that can purchase tickets immediately when the booking window opens.
Additionally, the new rules create restrictions for authorized ticketing agents; they cannot book opening-day Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the opening window — from 10:00-10:30 for AC classes and 11:00-11:30 for non-AC classes. This is intended to give passengers a better chance (to get tickets) during the initial rush.
Overall, while this is a welcome proposal for many who see potential for more transparent and fairer ticketing process, there will be obstacles. Passengers must officially link their Aadhaar to their IRCTC account, and they must ensure their mobile number associated with Aadhaar is updated and available to receive the OTP. If this is not addressed the chance of booking a ticket in an urgent travel situation will be inconvenient. There will still be challenges, most will be happy to note, even if millions of users try to request OTPs at once when Tatkal opens, there are likely to be systems in place by both the Railways and UIDAI to accommodate that traffic.
read more – Aadhaar-OTP mandatory for Tatkal
In summary, “No Aadhaar, No Tatkal” represents a significant shift toward digitizing and securing the Indian railway ticketing system. More broadly it indicates a serious a comprehensive approach to guarantee the Tatkal scheme correctly identifies, an important aims flexibility based on demand, to ensure transportation is available for those who truly have urgent needs.
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