Indian Railways ticket booking: IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) recently expanded the train ticket booking window for Aadhaar-authenticated users till midnight. As per the recently released statement by IRCTC, the update is stipulated to be under effect from tomorrow i.e. January 12.
With this change, Aadhaar-verified IRCTC users can book tickets throughout the day and up to 12:00 midnight on the first day of the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) opening. “So far, Aadhaar-authenticated users could book reserved tickets only between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon on the opening day. This window is now being expanded in a phased manner,” the statement read.
Has the ticket booking process been modified?
According to the IRCTC statement, there will be no change in the procedure of booking tickets across the computerised PRS counters. Indian railways had earlier made Aadhaar-based verification mandatory for booking reserved train tickets through the IRCTC website or app during the first 15 minutes of the opening of general reservations.
The process of Aadhaar authentication was later extended to the morning hours – from 8 AM to 10 AM – on the first day of reserved ticket booking.
Why has this change been introduced?
According to a report published by The Indian Express, the move which was recently announced by the ministry of railways aims to ensure that the benefits of the reservation system reach genuine passengers and prevent misuse by touts or other unscrupulous elements.
“Aadhaar verification of users is an important step which has been taken to make the system more robust. Cutting-edge technology is also being used to identify and prevent unscrupulous users trying to misuse the e-ticketing system,” the Ministry of Railways had previously said in a statement on January 6.
It further added that 5.73 crore suspicious and inactive IRCTC user accounts have been deactivated or temporarily suspended as a part of the railways mission to strengthen the integrity of the ticket booking system.