By — Shyamal Sinha

There are a number of significant steps continued to be undertaken to upgrade
the rail ticket booking system including introduction of new UI beta version w.e.f. 15/07/26. At present
about 89% of total reserved tickets are being booked through online mode. Leading to these constant
upgrades, on 07/09/2026, IRCTC recorded its highest-ever historic single-day booking of 20,06,353
tickets owing to festive season ARP booking. Due to these persistent efforts, the system continues to
sustain high load of booking and again achieved booking of 19,50,699 tickets on 08/09/26, which further
indicates the successful and voluminous handling of the NGet robust booking system. During the festive
season last year on 19/08/26 highest 18,40,203 tickets were booked in a single day.
As per the present trend only 8.43%–14.14% of the day’s bookings are completed during the first hour
(8:00–9:00 AM) and over 85% of bookings are completed successfully later in the day. The first 15
minutes (8:00–8:15 AM) consistently record the highest booking volume, reflecting peak concurrent
demand.
The above has been achieved due to certain important measures:
 NGet Refresh : A comparative assessment of server capacity has been carried out with respect to
pre-refresh and post-refresh infrastructure. The capacity of the entire ecosystem has been enhanced
to approximately double through induction of new servers in place of old servers. In addition to
hardware augmentation, substantial capacity enhancement, manifold increase over the earlier system,
has also been achieved through software optimization and architectural improvements.
 New User Interface: The IRCTC new User Interface beta version was introduced w.e.f. 15/07/26.
The redesigned interface features a sleek, contemporary look inspired by global design trends such
as Glassmorphism, offering a visually appealing and engaging journey from login to ticket
confirmation. With this upgrade, passengers now enjoy a more structured and easily digestible
presentation of information, guiding them effortlessly through their booking process. The revamped
interface consolidates availability information for multiple travel classes—such as Sleeper, AC 3 Tier, and AC 2 Tier—onto a single screen. This feature enables passengers to compare options at a
glance, reducing navigation effort and empowering them to make informed decisions swiftly.
 Systemic Measures (CDN and Anti BOT): IRCTC has engaged a leading technology player for
implementing Anti-BOT and CDN capabilities. Anti-BOT technology has resulted in mitigation of
malicious BOT traffic to the extent of 55% to 65% in the recent months. While implementation of
CDN (Content Delivery Network) for providing static content has reduced load on NGeT (Next
Generation e-Ticketing) system thus enhancing the experience for genuine/verified users. The
Network Security Team is actively taking down fake websites and mobile apps impersonating
IRCTC.

All categories of authorised ticketing agents (YTSKs, RTSAs, IRCTC Agents, etc.) are prohibited
from booking ARP tickets during the first 10 minutes of the booking window, i.e., 08:00 AM to 08:10
AM.
 Only Aadhaar-authenticated users are permitted to book tickets during the opening ARP window
(effective from 12.10.2025). NGeT successfully handled 1.33–1.74 crore logins and processed 17–
20 lakh bookings on each ARP opening day, demonstrating enhanced system capacity under heavy
demand.
 Due to continuous action against misuse – 3.04 Cr User IDs were deactivated and 6.33 Cr IDs put
under revalidation, 16,041 suspicious email domains were blocked, and 592 complaints lodged on
Cyber Crime Portal covering 4.21 lakh suspicious PNRs.
Despite exceptionally high concurrent demand there has been no failure or outage of the IRCTC NGeT
platform. Booking statistics demonstrate that the platform remained up and running while processing a
very high volume of simultaneous requests in a secure and equitable manner.
IRCTC is fully committed to serve its users by bringing in constant upgrades to the Indian Railway online
ticket booking system.