From 1 October 2025 i.e. from today, Indian Railways has made a big change in online ticket booking. Now, like Tatkal ticket, it will be mandatory to do Aadhaar verification for booking General Reservation Ticket. According to the railway, this step has been taken to stop tickets black marketing, rigging of agents and fake booking. In such a situation, let us now tell you that if you do not get the work done in your IRCTC account, you will not get a chance to book tickets 15 minutes in advance.

Who will not get the ticket booking 15 minutes?

After opening ticket booking window on IRCTC, only registered passengers will be allowed to book tickets from 8:00 am to 8:15 pm. This rule is applicable in both AC and non -AC classes. During this time, passengers with agents and fake IDs will not be able to book tickets. Apart from this, such users of IRCTC who have linked their IRCTC account to Aadhaar, then they will not get a chance to book confirmed tickets in the first 15 minutes.

Change also made in counter booking

Indian Railways has also made a big change in counter booking regarding ticket booking. Aadhaar verification and OTP verification will now be mandatory for passengers booking tickets from the PRS counter of the railway station. If you are booking tickets for someone else, then he will also have to give the passenger’s Aadhaar number and OTP.

How to link Aadhaar from IRCTC account?

1. To link Aadhaar with IRCTC account, first you have to login on the IRCTC website.

2. After this you have to go to the My Profile Section and select the link your base or Aadhaar KYC option

3. Now you have to fill your 12 -digit Aadhaar number and name.

4. After filling the Aadhaar number and name, you will have to enter the OTP on the mobile number and click on the submit.

5. After submitting OTP in this way, your account will be verified by Aadhaar.

Passengers will get direct benefit

If your IRCTC account will be linked to Aadhaar, then you will get a chance to book tickets in the first 15 minutes. Apart from this, it will stop the rigging of fake ID and agent. At the same time, this change will reduce waiting tickets and ordinary passengers will be able to get reserved tickets easily. Apart from this, at present there are 14.15 crore registered users on IRCTC, but only 1.85 crore has verified their account with Aadhaar.

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IRCTC has announced that from 1 July 2025, Tatkal tickets will be available only to those users whose IRCTC account has both Aadhaar number link and authenticate. The objective of this new policy is to bring transparency in ticket booking and ban bot/agent based booking. Services will be able to run smoothly only when users complete Aadhaar link and verification ahead of time.

Extremely easy to link Aadhaar to IRCTC

It is very easy to link Aadhaar to IRCTC account. For this, first login on the IRCTC website or mobile app. After login, go to the “Account” section and click on “Authenticate User” or “KYC” option. Here you will see the option to link Aadhaar and Pen Card. After this, click on Aadhaar and enter the 12 -digit Aadhaar number and generate OTP.

OTP will come on the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar. Your Aadhaar will be successfully linked as soon as you fill this OTP. If there is a difference in the name or date of birth in your Aadhaar and IRCTC account, then the system will give alert and the linking may fail. In such a situation, first of all, you should get your data corrected.

There will be so many tickets in a month

Under the new system, a maximum of 24 tickets can be booked in a month. Earlier this limit was only 12 tickets without Aadhaar linking. Also, OTP verification on Aadhaar -linked mobile number will also become mandatory from 15 July 2025. This rule will apply to online booking, PRS counter and agent booking.

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Linking Aadhaar is mandatory!

Railways say that this will tighten the tickets on ticket brokers and common passengers will get tickets easily. If you have not yet done Aadhaar linking, then complete this process soon, otherwise it can be difficult to book Tatkal tickets after 1 July.

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