IRCTC ticket booking: Indian Railways new timings for Aadhaar-authenticated IRCTC users
Indian Railways extends Aadhaar-authenticated IRCTC train ticket booking to 8 am-12 noon, eventually 8 am-12 am, from December 29, 2025. This new rule aims to curb touts and ensure genuine passengers secure reservations during the Advance Reservation Period (ARP). Coupled with deactivating suspicious IDs and Tatkal OTP verification, these measures strengthen the reservation system's fairness and security.
New Delhi: With effect from 29th December 2025, only Aadhaar authenticated users are allowed to book tickets between 8 am to 12 noon on the first day of opening of reserved ticket booking. The IRCTC Advance Reservation Period (ARP) opening day timing has been restricted so that the benefits of the train ticket reservation system reaches genuine passengers and touts are not able to misuse.
Aadhaar IRCTC Booking New Timings
The Indian Railways had made Aadhaar-based verification mandatory for booking reserved train tickets through the IRCTC website or app during the first 15 minutes of the opening of general reservations.
Thereafter, the timing was extended and people were allowed to book tickets from 8 am to 10 on the first day of reserved ticket booking.
The Railways will further extend the ticket booking window for Aadhaar-authenticated from 8 am to 12 am in a phased manner. January 12, 2026, this window will be from 8 am- 12 am.
"In continuation of the earlier instructions issued regarding requirement of Aadhaar authenticated IRCTC account for booking of General reserved tickets on the opening day of Advance Reservation Period (ARP), it has been decided to expand the scope of Aadhaar authenticated booking for general reservation on the opening day of reservation upto 0000 hours of the day in a phased manner,” Railway Boarded stated in its letter to all Principal Chief Commercial Managers (PCCMs).
Curbing Train Ticket Touts
Indian Railways has been taking steps to strengthen the ticket reservation system with robust cyber security. The Railways has deactivated 3.02 crore suspicious User IDs since January 2025 and anti-bot measures have been deployed to ensure genuine ticket booking.
"To curb misuse and improve fairness in tatkal bookings, Aadhaar-based One-Time Password (OTP) verification for online tatkal ticket booking has been introduced in a phased manner. It is already operational in 322 trains as on December 4, 2025. Due to the above steps, the confirmed tatkal ticket availability time has increased in about 65% of the abovementioned 322 trains,” the ministry stated in a latest release.