Indian Railways passengers note! Is your IRCTC account Aadhaar-verified? Tatkal tickets won't be possible otherwise..

Indian Railways is planning to mandate Aadhaar verification for all IRCTC accounts for booking tatkal tickets. The Railway Ministry has authorised the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) to authenticate a passenger's Aadhaar ID to establish his or her identity. This means only Aadhar verified accounts will be allowed to book online tatkal tickets. Indian Railways passengers will require an Aadhar based OTP authentication for booking.

A Gazette notification dated May 27, 2025, said, "The Ministry of Railways, Railway Board, hereby notifies that the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) be allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication, on a voluntary basis, to establish the identity of ticket-checking staff, crew members and passengers, using Yes/No or eKYC authentication facility."

Counter based tatkal ticket may also be booked after Aadhar verification to control malpractices. “Indian Railways will soon start using e-Aadhaar authentication to book Tatkal tickets. This will help genuine users get confirmed tickets during need," said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Almost a week after the notification, on June 4, 2025, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw posted on his X account, "Bharatiya Railways will soon start using e-Aadhaar authentication to book Tatkal tickets. This will help genuine users get confirmed tickets during needed," Vaishnaw added.
 

Why Aadhaar verification is mandatory for IRCTC account holders?

At present, IRCTC does get Aadhaar authentication done through a third party, but after the Gazette notification, it will be much easier and faster to get the authentication done. "Ticket-checking staff and crew members have also been brought under its ambit for official purposes," a railway official told PTI.

The Railway Ministry also issued a press statement in which it said that currently, there are more than 130 million active railway subscribers on the IRCTC website, of which only 12 million are Aadhaar-verified.

"IRCTC has decided to conduct special verification for all accounts that are not authenticated with Aadhaar. Accounts found to be suspicious will be closed. The railways aim to ensure that genuine passengers receive all types of Tatkal tickets," it said.

"Account holders who link their accounts with Aadhaar will get priority booking during the first 10 minutes of Tatkal ticket sales. Even authorized IRCTC agents are not allowed to book tickets within the first 10 minutes of the Tatkal window opening. Therefore, it has become necessary to verify your IRCTC account through Aadhaar," it added.

The Ministry said that the Railways is planning to make the Tatkal ticketing process more robust by making some of the rules more stringent like only Aadhaar-verified accounts will be allowed to book online Tatkal tickets, and Aadhaar-based OTP authentication shall also be required for booking.

Why is Aadhaar verification necessary for Indian Railways?

The move is being seen after Dr A. Velumani, the founder of Thyrocare, shared the viral image on X from Stocks which claimed that the IRCTC website hangs at 10 a.m. even when seats are available. Velumani said on X, “Shocking. If it is true, it is betrayal. !!”

“We too had similar chronic peak server load problem in #Thyrocare. We could not afford costly spare servers. But we solved it by staggering it. My managers were wise. If it is really server problem from 8 am to 6 pm allow 1/10 of trains booking every hour. It is server optimization. Please retweet this till concerned people put an end to this,” He further posted on 'X'.

Vaishnaw on Friday said a passenger, who has bought physical ticket from the ticket counter can cancel it online through the IRCTC website or 139, but one has to visit the reservation centre for collecting the amount.

The issue was raised by BJP MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni, who asked whether the passengers who have purchased waiting tickets from counter as opposed to etickets are required to visit the station before the train's departure for ticket cancellation.

"Waitlisted PRS counter ticket shall be cancelled across the reservation counter on surrendering of the original PRS counter ticket as per time limit prescribed in Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules 2015," Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.