India’s railway ticketing arm has moved to curb bulk bookings by touts and bots, combining account actions with technical changes and tighter early-window rules for bookings.
IRCTC deactivated 3.04 crore user IDs and suspended 6.33 crore more after detecting suspicious booking activity associated with bulk agents and fake accounts.
Technical measures — anti-BOT tools (cutting malicious traffic 55–65%) and a CDN — plus UI and server upgrades have increased capacity and reduced load on the New Generation Ticketing (NGeT) system.
Enforcement actions include blocking 16,041 suspicious email domains and registering 592 cyber-crime complaints covering about 4.21 lakh suspicious PNRs.
# What happened Corporation (IRCTC) has taken large-scale action against accounts it flagged for suspicious ticketing activity. The company deactivated 3.04 crore user IDs and suspended 6.33 crore additional IDs pending verification. Suspended accounts cannot make bookings until they verify their authenticity.
# Why IRCTC acted IRCTC says agents and touts were creating fake user IDs to make bulk bookings and then selling confirmed tickets at inflated prices. That practice raised concerns about fairness and deprived genuine passengers of access during critical booking windows.
# Enforcement steps taken
# Technical and operational responses
System capacity and user interface changes
# Booking-window rules
# Usage patterns and peak load IRCTC reported that only 8.43% to 14.14% of the day's bookings are completed in the first hour (8–9 a.m.), with over 85% of bookings completed later in the day. The first 15 minutes of the window see the highest concurrent demand. On September 7, the site recorded 20,06,353 tickets — the highest single-day load this year, attributed to festive-season demand.
# Related enforcement note Administration suspended licences of an IRCTC-linked kitchen and three ISKCON food outlets in a separate action mentioned by IRCTC, reflecting concurrent regulatory activity tied to service partners.
# What this means for users If you had an account that was suspended or deactivated, you will need to follow IRCTC's verification steps before booking again. For regular passengers, the combination of technical upgrades and tighter early-window rules aims to reduce bot-driven bulk bookings and make availability fairer during ARP openings.
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