Railways Clamps Down on Illegal Software, Says More Tatkal Tickets Now Available

More Tatkal tickets will be available for passengers now as the railways has weeded out several illegal software and arrested 60 agents who would use them to block such tickets, a top official said on Tuesday.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) Director-General Arun Kumar said the software cleansing exercise means Tatkal tickets, which would earlier vanish within minutes of opening of the booking, will now be available for passengers for hours. Those arrested include a Kolkata-based person with suspected links to Bangladesh-based terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JUMB).

In January, the RPF DG had said an e-ticketing racket with suspected links to terror-funding and money laundering was busted. Officials explained on Tuesday that illegal software such as 'ANMS', 'MAC' and 'Jaguar' would bypass the IRCTC's login captcha, booking captcha and bank OTP to generate tickets, while a genuine user has to go through all these processes.