NEW DELHI: To curb misuse and improve fairness, Aadhaar-based OTP verification for online Tatkal ticket booking is now operational in 322 trains, and due to this, the confirmed Tatkal ticket availability time has increased by about 65 per cent in these trains, the Parliament was informed on Thursday. Aadhaar-based OTP for Tatkal bookings at reservation counters has also been introduced in a phased manner, now implemented in 211 trains (as of December 4). As a result, the confirmed Tatkal ticket availability time has increased in about 95 per cent of the 96 popular trains, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question. The minister also informed that rigorous revalidation and verification of user accounts have been done. “About 3.02 crore suspicious user IDs have been deactivated since January 2025. Anti-bot solutions such as AKAMAI are deployed to filter non-genuine users and ensure smooth booking for legitimate passengers,” he mentioned. Complaints have also been filed on the National Cyber Crime Portal for suspiciously booked PNRs, the minister added. Vaishnaw informed about the use of multiple protective layers such as network firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, application delivery controllers and web application firewalls, which safeguard the system against cyber threats. (ians)
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