The Indian Railways will soon require mandatory OTP verification for all Tatkal tickets booked at physical reservation counters, a move aimed at preventing misuse of the high-demand last-minute booking system.
The OTP-based process, launched on November 17 as a pilot on select trains, has now expanded to 52 trains. Railways has confirmed that the system will be rolled out across all remaining trains in the coming days.
Under the new rule, passengers must provide a mobile number while booking Tatkal tickets. The ticket will be confirmed only after verifying the OTP sent to that number.
The main objective is to stop agents and others from blocking Tatkal seats in bulk and to ensure genuine passengers get a fair chance. This step aligns with other recent reforms, including Aadhaar-based OTP verification for online Tatkal bookings and Aadhaar authentication during the first 15 minutes of general ticket bookings on IRCTC.
Railways says the new system will boost security, transparency and convenience, and advises passengers to keep their mobile phones active during booking.