In view of increased demand for rail e-tickets, the Railways have decided to increase the limit for online bookings per day from 3.5 to about five lakh in the next four months and later to eight lakh. This was stated by Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa. The Minister said both Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation and Centre for Railway Information System along with railways IT wing are working jointly in this direction.At a meeting with senior officials of Railway Board about steps taken to combat cases of black marketing and purchase of railway tickets by touts, the minister said surprise checks were conducted and 170 officers were identified conniving and action has been initiated against 102 of them. He said these include penalties like removal and reversion from service. The minister added that between 2009-10 to 2011-12, Railways carried more than 2 lakh surprise checks, apprehending 4200 touts and over 63 lakh realised from them.AIR Correspondent reports, Muniyappa's statement comes in the wake of Railways announcing a series of measures in the recent past to check misuse of tatkal scheme, which include starting tatkal booking at 10 am instead of 8 am.