Steps Taken By Indian Railways To Prevent Unscrupulous Elements In Booking Of Tickets

In order to prevent the activities of unscrupulous elements/ touts in booking of e-tickets including Tatkal tickets, several checks have been deployed by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) of Indian Railways including the following:

1. Restriction of only 2 Tatkal tickets per user from 1000 hours to 1200 hours.
2. Introduction of Random Security Question for Tatkal ticket bookings.
3. Restriction of only one tatkal ticket per day per train to retail service providers (agents).
4. Restriction of creation of only one IRCTC User ID on a given mobile number and email ID.
5. A limit of booking 6 Railway tickets by an individual user in a month has been set. This has been enhanced to 12 Railway tickets per month, if users have linked their IRCTC user ID with their Aadhaar number, and at least one of the passengers in the passenger list is verifiable through Aadhaar.
6. Restriction of only one booking in one user login session except for return/onward journey between 0800 and 1200 hours.
7. Dynamic CAPTCHA introduced at three places- registration, login and booking page to check fraudulent booking through automation software.
8. Checks on minimum time required to enter passenger details and display of CAPTCHA at the time of e-ticket booking by users.
9. Restriction on authorized agents of IRCTC for booking tickets during first fifteen minutes of opening of Advance Reservation Period (ARP) booking and Tatkal booking.
10. Regular drives are being conducted by RPF against persons/agencies found involved in unauthorized carrying on of business of procuring and supplying of railway tickets. The offenders are booked under section 143 of the Railways Act.
11. Use of PRABAL query based application for verification of IRCTC IDs to detect the cases of illegal E-ticketing with follow up action.

This press release is based on information given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.