Irctc tatkal booking: Tatkal ticket facility of railway is for those who need travel in emergency. Some have to go to attend the funeral, someone has to travel emergency for interview or any other important work.
This is the reason that every morning at exactly 10 o’clock, crores of Indians try to book TATKAL tickets through the IRCTC portal. But, there would be a lot of luck, who will get the Tatkal ticket. The immediate booking for the Emergency Yatra has now transformed into a digital stampede. Sometimes the site freeze, payment fails and seats disappear in a few seconds.
Now Indian Railways has revealed for the first time who are behind these missing seats- bots, fake user IDs and fraud agents dodging the system.
2.9 lakh suspicious tickets in just 5 minutes!
Between January and May 2025, IRCTC found that 2.9 lakh suspects were generated in just five minutes of opening the booking window. That is, bots or automatic software are misusing the system.
In response, the Railways closed 2.5 crore fake or duplicate user IDs. Also, started investigating 2 million other IDs again. Many of these ID agents and third party were associated with software, who were taking advantage of the system’s weaknesses.
Disposable email and fake account game
Large-scale new accounts were created from Disposable email IDS to bypass the security of IRCTC. Disposable email ID means that they are used only for once. Railways blocked more than 6,800 such domains and lodged 134 complaints on the cybercrime portal.
Black marketing of tickets and tatkal mafia
Immediate booking started so that people traveling in emergency could get tickets. But now it has become a market run by illegal software like ‘Nexus’ and ‘Super Tatkal’. It can login, fill and pay many times rapidly from humans.
According to a survey by localcircirals, 73% of people go into the waiting list within a minute. 30% of people start resorting to ticket agents. Because it was almost impossible for a common user to book Tatkal tickets by himself.
Why are the tickets in distant trains finished in seconds?
Full of immediate booking blinking is not just a matter of high demand. Railways says that digital manipulation means tampering of the system is the real reason. Therefore, in small towns or low -demanded trains, tickets also end in a pinch.
What is the railway doing now to stop fraud?
IRCTC says that there is more strong systems to deal with black marketing of tickets and immediate booking mafia. Railways have installed special software to identify bots. A large content delivery network company has also partnered. Also, thousands of suspected domains and IDs have been blocked.
Some effects are also visible. On 22 May 2025, at 10 am, IRCTC also set a record of booking 31,814 tickets every minute. Between October 2024 and May 2025, the ‘Booking Success Rate’ increased from 43.1% to 62.2%.
Users complaints on social media
The railway is undoubtedly trying to stop the black marketing of Tatkal tickets on its behalf. But, due to many black marketing, they are not able to book Tatkal tickets. An X user Roshan Pathak wrote, “Tatkal ticket booking time is 10:00 pm. I tried at 10:02 pm, then came – ‘Booking has not started yet’. And when tried again at 10:03 pm, then I wrote – ‘No tickets are available’ (not all have been booked).”
Another ex user Anil Jha wrote, ‘Tatkal ticket booking time is from 10 o’clock, but the real opportunity is just 30 seconds. I have proof, because I have tried myself. As soon as she wanted to book tickets at 10:00:30 (just 30 seconds), the system was showing the system directly Waiting 12. Now the question is that when 66 seats in the train were for Tatkal, how did all the seats be booked in just 30 seconds? What else is this joke? ‘
Both users have also put a screenshot of booking to proof their point. Like this, there are many users, who are expressing their anger on social media, accusing them of rigging Tatkal ticket booking.
Is there any permanent way to stop rigging in immediate booking?
Thyrocare Founder A. Velumani also expresses displeasure over the shortcomings of IRCTC’s immediate booking system. He suggested on the social media platform X, ‘Booking system should be divided into slots. That is, tatkal booking of all trains should not be opened at the same time, but booking of 10% trains is opened every hour.
He wrote, “Instead of allowing everyone to book together, distribute time, this will reduce the pressure on the server and everyone will get a chance.” Velumani says that as soon as a user will enter the train number to book tickets, it will be written that immediate booking for this train will start from what time.
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