Indian railways announce a series of reforms to improve ticket booking and travel experience for passengers.
These changes have been reviewed recently by the Rail Minister Ashwini Vanishnaw, which promotes the need for a magnificent, accessible, and efficient system.
Ticket booking system changes focuses on the development of passenger convenience and secure a smooth travel experience.
One of the main changes suggested is the progress of preparing the reservation chart. Today, reservation charts are prepared four hours before leaving the train, which leads to uncertainty for passengers – especially travelers from nearby or remote areas. To answer this, the railroad board suggests preparing reservation charts eight hours before leaving.
For trains to leave before 2:00 pm, charts now prepare at 9:00 pm the night last day. The minister approved this proposal and ordered the implementation to ensure smooth transition.
This step is expected to benefit passengers who hold tickets to Wasylisted, which gives them earlier updates on their ticket status and allow hours for alternative arrangements as needed.
In addition, the Minister checks on the continued upgrade to the passenger reservation system (PRS), a project that is carried by the center for railroad information systems (Cris).
Upgraded PRS is designed to be agile, flexible, and scoable, able to handle ten times in current capacity. If it is implemented, the system will support 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute, a five-fold increase from the present 32,000 tickets per minute. Similarly, the ticket inquiry capacity will rise from 4 lakh to over 40 lakh per minute.
New PRSs have a multilingual, interface-friendly interface and offer options developed as Seat and Care Calendar selection. These facilities will also include disabilities (divyangjan), students, and patients, ensure entry.
As part of the additional modernization, the government will implement the developmental measures for tattoos bookings.
Starting July 1, 2025, authenticated users will be allowed to be allowed to book Tatkal tickets to the IRCTC website and mobile app.
From the end of July 2025, OTP verification can be mandatory for these books. The authentication process uses aadhaar or any other proven useful government ID available at the user’s Digilocker account.
