CHENNAI: After failing in its attempt to link the Aadhaar card with train ticket bookings for providing senior citizen concessions, the Railways has now increased the monthly cap on tickets booked online from six to 12 for Aadhaar-verified passengers.
According to the revised guidelines that came into effect on Wednesday, rail passenger who uploaded their Aadhaar number in the IRCTC portal will be allowed to book tickets online up to 12 times per month as against the existing cap of six times per month. Tickets booked through Rail Connect mobile application will also be accounted for.
IRCTC official sources said the passengers would be able to book six tickets without validating the Aadhaar card. If the number goes beyond six, Aadhaar number of user and one of the passengers should be updated in the IRCTC portal and it will be validated.
“IRCTC users should click on Aadhaar KYC under my profile category and update their Aadhaar number. A one-time password will be sent to mobile number linked to Aadhaar and the same should be entered to get verified. In addition, Aadhaar number of anyone of the passengers for whom ticket booked should also be updated under ‘master list’ and the same will be validated through an OTP,” said IRCTC sources.
Explaining further, the official said that to avail additional tickets, the users had to use anyone of the Aadhaar-verified passenger details from the master list. “This means that beyond six tickets, additional tickets can be booked only for Aadhaar-verified rail passengers.”
The move is expected to eliminate malpractices in ticket bookings completely as touts and travel agents cannot create fake user IDs anymore. In the IRCTC portal, under general quota, six passengers can be reserved in a single ticket, while Tatkal bookings allow four passengers per ticket.
Though the railway passengers association has welcomed the decision, they remain skeptical of the future changes in the railways with respect to Aadhaar cards. “The increase in number of tickets will surely benefit the business class passengers who travel frequently. After a period of time, the railways should not link Aadhaar to provide any concession to passengers,” said T Mohammed Mubeen, member of Divisional
Rail Users’ Consultative Committee, Chennai division.
In December last, the Indian Railways announced that registration of Aadhaar card with the IRCTC was mandatory to avail concessions from April 1, 2017. Following opposition from various forums and technical glitches in linking Aadhaar with IRCTC, the railways dropped the move.