Indian Railway Tatkal ticket new rule OTP mandatory for booking tickets
The Railways has implemented a new OTP based rule to make the booking process more secure and transparent. This means that now Tatkal tickets will be available from the counter only when the OTP received on the passenger’s mobile number is successfully entered. This step has been taken to curb the fraud in Tatkal tickets, fake bookings and the arbitrariness of touts.
Indian Railways has already implemented several innovations in digital ticketing. In July 2025, Aadhaar-based authentication was introduced for online Tatkal ticket booking. Subsequently, in October 2025, an OTP-based online system was implemented for first-day booking of all general reservations. This was well-received by passengers and increased transparency in ticketing.
The Railways has now extended this model to counter booking. From November 17, 2025, the Railways launched a pilot project for OTP-based Tatkal ticket counter booking, which was initially implemented on a few trains. Given its success, the system has now been implemented on 52 trains.
