Effective January 12, 2026, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will implement new rules for general reserved ticket bookings. Only users who have authenticated their Aadhaar details will be able to book reserved tickets on the first day of the Advance Reservation Period (ARP). This follows a similar mandate for Tatkal ticket bookings, which requires Aadhaar authentication from July 1, 2025, and Aadhaar-based OTP authentication from July 15, 2025.