The Indian Railways has decided to make Aadhar cards mandatory for buying rail tickets. The scheme will be implemented in a phased number. To start with, senior citizens without Aadhar card will not be given 50% concession they are entitled to now.
Mandatory Aadhar card requirements for senior citizen will start from April 1, 2017, reports say. Though the concession will be not be given, but senior citizens will be given tickets after paying the full fare.
Railways will start asking for Aadhar cards with immediate effect, but it will not be mandatory. Gradually it will be made mandatory.
The plan is to shift to an Aadhar-based booking system. Aadhar details will be linked to the reservation system. So at the time of filling forms, you will be just required to fill in the date and destination, rest of the details will appear automatically on system from Aadhar database.
The step is being taken to control the booking touts who book tickets on fake names and addresses. Railways then will have the exact and correct details, which is of great help in the case of accidents.
Aadhar based reservation will be mandatory for both, online and counter tickets. So in simple terms if you don’t have Aadhar, you will not be able to travel on trains.
