In order to prevent misuse and make the process more equitable, Aadhaar-based OTP verification for online booking of Tatkal tickets is now in place for 322 trains. This has led to a 65 per cent increase in the availability of confirmed Tatkal tickets in those trains, as per the announcement by the Parliament on Thursday.
Wider implementation across counter bookings
The implementation of Aadhaar-based OTP for Tatkal counter bookings has also been gradual, with the system now in place in 211 trains (as of December 4).
In fact, the confirmed Tatkal ticket availability time has increased in about 95 per cent of the 96 popular trains, the Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written statement to the Lok Sabha in response to a query.
He further disclosed that strict revalidation and verification of user accounts have been carried out.
Cancellation of bot accounts for clean booking system
“From January 2025 onwards, around 3.02 crore user IDs suspected to be bots have been cancelled. The non-human traffic is handled by anti-bot tools like AKAMAI that allow the legitimate passengers to book without any hassle,” he said.
Besides, the minister added, complaints concerning the suspiciously booked PNRs have also been lodged on the National Cyber Crime Portal.
Strong cybersecurity framework in place
Vaishnaw talked about the multiple layers of protections such as network firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, application delivery controllers, and web application firewalls that make the system safe against any cyber threats.
The infrastructure is located in a dedicated data center that is controlled for access and protected by round-the-clock CCTV surveillance and full encryption. The data center has been certified under ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) standards.
“To further bolster its cyber security posture, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. is providing comprehensive cyber threat intelligence services, which involve take-down, monitoring, as well as deep and dark web surveillance.”
“Such services give timely and precise information about new cyber threats and promote better incident response,” indicated the minister.
Additionally, the cyber monitoring of ticketing-related internet traffic is being carried out non-stop by CERT-In and NCIIPC (National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre) to spot and stop potential cyberattacks.
