Popularity of Online Ticket Bookings Surge; Increasing Passenger Convenience and Saving Time, Online Ticketing Crosses 48.25 Crore (88%) in FY 2025–26 till February

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has provided the facility to book reserved tickets online saving passengers from the trouble of going to reservation counters to book the tickets thus saving travel time and transportation costs.

IRCTC incurs substantial expenditure on providing online ticketing facility and in order to defray the cost incurred in maintenance, upgradation and expansion of ticketing infrastructure, a very nominal convenience fee is levied by IRCTC.

The online ticket booking facility provided by IRCTC is one of the most passenger friendly initiatives of Indian Railways and its acceptance can be gauged from the fact that at present approximately 88% of the reserved tickets are booked online.

Clerkage is levied on cancellation of all waitlisted tickets including cancelled through IRCTC website as per the Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fare) Rules, 2015, notified through Gazette notification and as amended from time to time. Review and rationalization of policy is a continuous and ongoing process.

To prevent the misuse of the reservation facility & to ensure transparency, the following steps have been taken by Indian Railways:

i. With effect from 01-07-2025, tickets under Tatkal Scheme can be booked through the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)/its app only by Aadhaar authenticated users.

ii. During the opening day of general reservation of ARP, the reserved general tickets can be booked through the website of IRCTC or its app only by Aadhar authenticated users.

Measures taken in this regard have improved ease of booking by reducing instant booking of tickets. The system has also been made more equitable by restricting multiple bookings using fake accounts. No user account has been deactivated due to non-linking of Aadhaar.

The comparative details of number of tickets booked online and through counter during financial year of 2025-26 (upto February, 26) is as under:

IRCTC adopts broad parameters for identifying fake/malicious user ids/User accounts like, unrealistic mobile numbers, disposable email domains, IP Addresses, Sequential and Gibberish User IDs etc. During calendar year 2025, 3.04 crore user accounts were deactivated and 2.94 crore user accounts were put under temporary suspension with option of Revalidation. However, during the period 01.01.2025 to 28.02.2026, 1,80,474 user accounts have been re-activated.

3 करोड़ से ज्यादा फेक अकाउंट IRCTC से हटाए गए हैं। आज जेनुइन पैसेंजर्स को कंफर्म टिकट मिलने लगा है: माननीय रेल मंत्री @AshwiniVaishnaw जी pic.twitter.com/FhaP5rAwGm

Aadhaar authentication provides instantaneous verification of user uniqueness, which is critical considering the time-sensitive nature of Tatkal ticket booking. The introduction of Aadhaar authentication has helped in preventing the creation and operation of fake or unauthorized agent-controlled multiple user accounts by imposing a uniqueness constraint.

This measure acts as an effective safeguard against account multiplication and automated misuse, thereby ensuring fair allocation of Tatkal tickets. Consequently, Aadhaar authentication has contributed to improved ticket availability for genuine passengers by reducing unfair booking practices and enhancing transparency in the online Tatkal booking system.

Further, following steps have also been taken by IRCTC to ensure that tickets are made available to the genuine users by eliminating the Network of Ticket Scalping:

• To optimize system performance, IRCTC has already implemented a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to offload static content and reduce direct traffic on NGeT website servers.
• Further, Anti BOT Technology is in place which helps in mitigating malicious/suspicious attempts which on an average is mitigated to the extent of 64%.
• This helps in mitigating malicious traffic and providing static content reducing load on system and thus enhancing the experience for genuine and verified users.
• Substantial quantum of malicious traffic is intercepted frequently.
• 408 complaints have been lodged on the National Cyber Crime Portal pertaining to 4.07 lakh suspicious PNRs until 28 February, 2026.
• 13,023 suspicious email domains have been blocked in the year 2025-26 until 28 February, 2026.

Further, IRCTC carries out continuous monitoring to curb fraudulent activities by analysing booking patterns and user registrations through comprehensive data analysis. User IDs found suspicious during such analysis are deactivated as a preventive measure. A grievance redressal mechanism is available on the IRCTC website and mobile application. Requests received from users through their registered email ID and mobile number are examined in detail, and genuine user IDs are reactivated based on the outcome of such analysis. Taking steps to ensure transparency in booking of general as well as Tatkal tickets based on feedback received on various platforms is a continuous and ongoing process.

This information was provided by the Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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Dharmendra Tewari/ Dr. Nayan Solanki/ Manik Sharma