From February 15, train passengers can only book tickets six times a month from one user ID on the Indian Railways’ website irctc.co.in. According to PTI, this has been done to prevent misuse of the online system by touts, who would otherwise block hundreds of seats through the month. Earlier, the Railways’ limit was 10 bookings every month.

Officials said they had analysed the usage of the quota for booking tickets and found that most users only bought them six times a month. The only ones who were booking more often were the touts, they claimed.

The Railways website already has other limitations to prevent tickets from being completely bought out by touts and agents. Individuals are allowed to book only two Tatkal tickets per user ID on a given day, and ticketing agents have been banned from booking tickets in the beginning of the day to give other passengers a chance.

However, critics of the new proposal said that the move would affect passengers who are frequent rail travellers. Others argued that agents would get around this rule by creating multiple user IDs.