New Delhi: IRCTC’s online ticketing system has handled record traffic in 2025-26, with Indian Railways’ digital booking arm reporting higher daily reservations
and a wider crackdown on suspicious accounts.
For crores of passengers, this matters most during Tatkal hours, when every second feels like a mini war. IRCTC said it deactivated 3.03 crore suspicious user IDs in 2025 and placed 6.05 crore IDs under revalidation to check misuse.
IRCTC blocks suspicious IDs as online ticket bookings rise
IRCTC said the action was part of its wider anti-fraud and cybersecurity work to make online railway bookings fairer for genuine passengers. The corporation also blocked 13,343 suspicious email domains during the year.
The numbers are big. In coordination with law enforcement agencies, IRCTC lodged 501 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Portal linked to 4.18 lakh suspicious PNRs.
Online rail ticketing hits new records
IRCTC said it booked an average of 14.53 lakh tickets per day in 2025-26. That is higher than the 13.88 lakh average daily bookings recorded in 2024-25.
The platform also touched two fresh records:
- 37,410 tickets booked in one minute at 10:02 AM on August 16, 2025
- 18.40 lakh tickets booked in a single day on August 19, 2025
Nearly 89 per cent of all reserved railway tickets in 2025-26 were booked through IRCTC’s online channels, according to official data.
AI and chatbot tools now part of railway booking push
IRCTC said it uses AI and machine learning to detect fraud during high-traffic windows such as Tatkal bookings. The system tracks bulk booking patterns and suspicious digital identities.
AskDisha, IRCTC’s voice and text chatbot powered by Microsoft Azure, also played a role. It supports English, Hindi and Hinglish. In FY 2025-26, around 8.12 lakh reserved rail e-tickets were booked through the chatbot.
