Railways to make Aadhar mandatory for online bookings
03 Mar 2017
Indian Railways will soon move towards Aadhaar-based online ticketing to prevent touts from blocking tickets in bulk, end fraudulent bookings and prevent cases of impersonation.
Aadhaar number has been made mandatory for senior citizens to avail of concessions in train tickets from 1 April. A three-month trial run for this is going on.
As per the new business plan 2017-18, unveiled by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday, besides the Aadhaar-based ticketing system, the Railways will move towards cashless ticketing by installing 6,000 point-of-sale machines and 1,000 automatic ticket vending machines across the country.
An integrated ticketing app will also be launched by May to promote cashless transactions.
"Aadhaar number will be required for one-time registration at the IRCTC ticketing site. The step is aimed at eliminating touts from registering with fake identities," a senior railway ministry official said, adding the Railways are preparing software for the purpose.
Despite taking several steps, touts corner a bulk of tickets and sell them at much higher prices, which has been a long-standing problem for the Railways.
The new business plan also envisages launching of new tourist trains connecting hill stations and enhancing passenger comfort and providing pleasurable journey experience through improving amenities and catering service.
