IRCTC Tatkal Ticket Booking: Indian Railways has decided to make a big change in the Tatkal ticket booking system. Now soon Tatkal ticket booking will be done through e-Aadhaar authentication. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the purpose of this change is to curb fake booking, so that needy and genuine passengers can get confirmed tickets on time.
Passengers still lagging behind in the race for confirmed tickets
According to the railways, on an average 2.25 lakh passengers try to book tatkal tickets from IRCTC’s online platform every day. But as soon as the booking opens, the tickets get filled so fast that most passengers get disappointed in the very first minute.
Data from May 24 to June 2 shows that in the first minute of opening of AC class booking, only 5,615 tickets could be booked, while the potential number of tickets was 1.08 lakh. Within ten minutes, more than 67,000 tickets were booked, which is 62.5 percent of the total Tatkal tickets. In the non-AC class too, about 66 percent of the tickets were sold in the first 10 minutes.
This makes it clear that the demand is very high and users already in the system often outnumber the rest. There is also a large number of bot accounts involved in black marketing of Tatkal tickets.
13 crore accounts, only 1.2 crore Aadhaar linked
IRCTC has more than 13 crore active users, but only 1.2 crore of these users are verified by Aadhaar. Railways has now started investigating the remaining accounts. Considering about 20 lakh accounts as suspicious, their Aadhaar and other documents are being checked. Railways says that the accounts found to be fake will be deactivated.
Those who link Aadhaar will get priority in booking
The railways plan is that users who link their IRCTC account with Aadhaar will get priority in the first 10 minutes of opening of Tatkal ticket booking. That is, the system will first identify them and then proceed with the booking process. This will curb those who book tickets through bots and scripts and the system will become more transparent and fair.
The new system will be implemented soon
The aim of the railways is to make ticket booking more secure and transparent through technology. The e-Aadhaar based system will be implemented soon. After this, it will be necessary for those booking Tatkal tickets to get their Aadhaar verified. This will weaken the hold of touts in online booking and the chances of genuine needy passengers getting confirmed tickets will increase.
