Indian Railways is poised to revolutionise passenger ticketing with a new Passenger Reservation System capable of generating over 150,000 tickets per minute—nearly five times the current capacity of 32,000. The system, currently under development by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), is expected to be operational by the end of 2025. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who recently reviewed progress on the initiative, said the goal is to deliver a transparent, efficient, and passenger-centric experience from the first step of booking a journey.
The upgraded PRS will significantly boost ticket enquiry capabilities, increasing them tenfold—from 400,000 to over 4 million per minute. Designed to be agile, flexible, and scalable, it will feature an intuitive multilingual interface and options for seat selection, fare calendar display, and integrated services for students, Divyangjan, and patients.
To address uncertainty for passengers on the waitlist, Indian Railways will roll out advanced charting protocols. Currently, reservation charts are generated four hours before train departure, often posing challenges to commuters travelling from nearby regions. The revised approach will introduce charting eight hours prior to departure, and for trains scheduled before 2 p.m., charts will be prepared by 9 p.m. the previous day. This change is being phased in to ensure continuity without disruption. Passengers will now receive waitlist updates earlier, allowing additional time for alternative arrangements.
Tatkal ticket booking is also undergoing major reform. Beginning 1 July 2025, only authenticated users will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets via the IRCTC website and mobile app. From the end of July, this will be further reinforced by OTP-based authentication. The Railway Minister directed officials to broadbase authentication using Aadhaar or other verifiable government-issued IDs linked through DigiLocker, enhancing security and curbing misuse.
These developments reflect Indian Railways’ push toward smarter digital infrastructure in line with its vision of modernising services and enhancing user convenience. The Ministry reiterated its commitment to ensuring that every component of the travel experience is seamless, accountable, and responsive to the needs of over 20 million daily rail passengers.
