After IRCTC makes Aadhaar must, tatkal tickets in reach of common man

New Indian Express

2 days ago

CHENNAI: The implementation of Aadhaar authentication for booking tatkal tickets online from July 1 has greatly reduced the long-standing issue of tickets selling out within seconds. Users are now reporting ticket availability up to 10 minutes after bookings open for tatkal seats.
After bookings open at 10am, AC tatkal tickets were found to be available until 10.10am. Similarly, non-AC tickets which open at 11am were available from 11.05am to 11.08am, said passengers.
According to regular train travellers, tatkal tickets are available for more than five minutes even on high-demand routes such as Chennai-Howrah, Chennai-New Delhi, and others.
'Aadhaar authentication has had a positive impact on bookings. Particularly, on the Chennai-Thanjavur/Kumbakonam/Tiruchy routes, tatkal tickets now remain available for 5-10 minutes after the bookings open, which wasn't the case earlier,' A Giri, former member of the Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC) for the Tiruchy division, said.
Meanwhile, the OTP-based tatkal ticket booking system, which was scheduled to be launched on Tuesday by the Indian Railways, has been postponed as the integration of IRCTC portal with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is taking longer than expected. The roll-out for OTP authentication in tatkal bookings will be announced soon, official sources told the TNIE.