Indian Railways is set to introduce a new Passenger Reservation System (PRS) by the end of this year, aiming to make the ticket booking process faster, smarter and more passenger-friendly. The upgraded system will be capable of generating over 1.5 lakh tickets per minute, nearly five times higher than the current capacity of 32,000 tickets per minute, according to the Ministry of Railways.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently reviewed the progress of these reforms and highlighted the need for a ticketing system that is smart, transparent, accessible and efficient. Emphasising passenger convenience, the Minister said that the entire journey should be smooth and comfortable right from the stage of ticket reservation.
Indian Railways will advance the reservation chart preparation from the current four hours before departure to eight hours prior. For trains scheduled to depart before 2 pm, the reservation chart will now be prepared the previous evening by 9 pm. This change is expected to help passengers travelling from remote locations or nearby areas, giving them more time to plan or make alternative arrangements if their tickets remain unconfirmed.
The upgraded PRS, which is being developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), is designed to be agile, flexible and scalable, capable of handling ten times the current load. Apart from boosting ticket booking capacity, the system will also increase ticket enquiry capacity from the present four lakh to over forty lakh enquiries per minute. The new interface will be multilingual and user-friendly, allowing passengers to choose seats, view fare calendars and access integrated facilities for Divyangjan, students and patients.
In addition, Indian Railways is strengthening the authentication process for Tatkal bookings. From July 1, only authenticated users will be able to book Tatkal tickets on the IRCTC website and mobile app. By the end of July 2025, OTP-based authentication will also be introduced. The Railway Minister has directed that authentication should use Aadhaar or any other verifiable Government ID available in the user’s DigiLocker account.
