Mumbai, June 6 -- The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has made it mandatory for users to link their Aadhaar numbers with their login IDs to book train tickets under the tatkal quota. The move, being implemented since this week, is aimed at preventing touts from booking multiple tatkal tickets and ensuring that genuine passengers get first priority in tatkal ticketing, said IRCTC officials. Currently, the IRCTC platform has over 130 million active users, of which only 12 million accounts are Aadhaar-verified. Around 225,000 tatkal tickets are booked daily via the online platform, with 66.4% of tickets being sold within the first 10 minutes of the commencement of tatkal booking. Around 84.02% tatkal tickets are sold within the first hour of commencement of tatkal bookings, while 12% tatkal tickets are booked 8-10 hours after the window opens. IRCTC officials said Aadhaar-verified users will get priority access to tatkal tickets, especially during the crucial first 10 minutes. "Even authorised IRCTC agents will not be able to book tatkal tickets during this initial phase even if they have multiple user IDs and emails," an IRTC official told Hindustan Times. Aadhaar-based one-time passwords would also be required for booking tatkal tickets, the official said. "In future, Aadhaar verification will be mandatory for booking tatkal tickets over the counter as well," the official mentioned. Meanwhile, the IRCTC has launched a campaign against the use of AI tools to book tickets online, said another IRCTC official. "We have deactivated and blocked over 24 million users in the past six months while another 2 million users have been flagged as suspicious and are under investigation based on their Aadhaar and other documents," the official said....