New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) The government on Wednesday said online train ticket bookings have seen a sharp rise, with over 48.25 crore tickets, or 88 per cent of total reserved bookings, made digitally in FY 2025–26 till February.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that the increasing shift towards online booking through IRCTC has made ticketing easier for passengers by reducing the need to visit reservation counters and cutting travel time and costs.

“The online ticket booking facility provided by IRCTC is one of the most passenger friendly initiatives of Indian Railways and its acceptance can be gauged from the fact that at present approximately 88 per cent of the reserved tickets are booked online,” the minister stated.

“IRCTC incurs substantial expenditure on providing online ticketing facility and in order to defray the cost incurred in maintenance, upgradation and expansion of ticketing infrastructure, a very nominal convenience fee is levied by IRCTC,” the minister added.

The online system has become one of the most passenger-friendly initiatives of Indian Railways, with a large majority of tickets now being booked digitally.

To ensure fair access and prevent misuse, the government has taken several steps to curb fraudulent activities.

From July 1, 2025, Tatkal tickets can be booked online only by Aadhaar-authenticated users.

This has helped limit the use of fake accounts and improved the chances of genuine passengers getting tickets.

“During 2025, 3.04 crore user accounts were deactivated and 2.94 crore user accounts were put under temporary suspension with option of Revalidation,” Vaishnaw stated.

“However, during the period 01.01.2025 to 28.02.2026, 1,80,474 user accounts have been re-activated,” he added.

IRCTC has also strengthened its technology systems to tackle cyber threats. Its anti-bot technology is able to block about 64 per cent of malicious traffic, helping improve the booking experience for genuine users.

“13,023 suspicious email domains have been blocked in the year 2025-26 until February 28, 2026,” Vaishnaw explained.

--IANS

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