Indian Railways has made 7 major changes in ticket booking, which will be beneficial while booking train tickets.

Indian Railways has made some important changes from July 2025, which will have a direct impact on passengers. They aim to make ticket booking easier, ban brokers and make the service transparent. Let’s know which rules of Indian Railways have changed.

Aadhaar is now mandatory to book Tatkal tickets

Now only those people will be able to book Tatkal tickets on the IRCTC website or app, whose Aadhaar is linked to their IRCTC account. That means first Aadhaar will have to be linked and then it will have to be verified with OTP. From July 15, this OTP verification will become mandatory.

OTP will also be required when buying tickets from counters and agents.

Now not only online, but also when buying instant tickets from railway counters or registered agents, you will have to get OTP verified. This step has been taken to prevent fake bookings and brokerage.

Ticket booking time fixed for agents

Railways has decided that authorized agents will not be able to book tickets for some time so that the general public can book tickets first.

• AC Class Tickets: Agents will not be able to book from 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM.
• Non-AC class tickets: Agents will not be able to book from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM.

Now the reservation chart will be prepared earlier.

The reservation chart will be prepared 8 hours before the departure of the train. If the train departs before 2 pm, then its chart will be prepared at 9 pm the previous night. Earlier this work was done 4 hours before the departure of the train.

Railway fares have increased

. The Railways has made traveling on long-distance trains more expensive.

• No increase up to 500 km.
• Rs 5 increase from 501 to 1500 km
• Rs 10 increase from 1501 to 2500 km
• Rs 15 increase from 2501 to 3000 km
• The fare for AC class trains has also been increased by 2 paise per km. Trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Tejas have been included in this.

No changes to reservations and other charges.

The good thing is that the reservation fee, superfast surcharge and other charges will remain the same. GST will also be applicable as before.

How to link Aadhaar for Tatkal ticket?