Aadhaar not compulsory for rail bookings, but incentivising its usage voluntarily: Railways

The Railways has said Aadhaar is not compulsory for booking tickets for rail journey, but it is encouraged by the transport behemoth by promoting it on a voluntary basis by incentivising it.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said there is no proposal to make Aadhaar number compulsory for booking tickets. However, as of January 1, 2017, requirement of

Aadhaar verification for booking concessional railway tickets for senior citizen has been introduced on voluntary basis, he said.

The minister said in order to incentivise the passengers for linking their Aadhaar ID and mobile number for booking of tickets, the present ceiling of number of tickets to be booked by individual users every month on the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) has been revised to 12 tickets.

This, he said was for those individual users whose accounts are verified through Aadhaar ID subject to condition that one of the passengers in the ticket to be booked is verifiable through Aadhaar.

"A reward scheme has also been introduced by IRCTC to incentivise linking of Aadhaar with user ID of IRCTC," the minister said.