(Image source from: Zee News)

Aadhaar-Verified Passengers Can Now Book 12 Tickets Per Month Online:- In an exciting development, the officials said that the monthly cap on tickets booked on the IRCTC portal, has been increased from six to twelve, by the Indian Railways.

This move is believed to be an innovative way for the railways to encourage passengers to link their Aadhar numbers to their online booking accounts on IRCTC. The move came into effect on October 26. Without validating their Aadhaar cards, the passengers can continue to book up to six tickets a month, said the IRCTC officials. The Aadhaar number of the user and one of the passengers should be updated in the IRCTC portal, if the number goes beyond six, explained an official.

The Aadhaar number of the users can be updated when the users on the IRCTC portal click on Aadhaar KYC, under the 'my profile' category. An one-time password (OTP) will be sent to the mobile number linked to Aadhaar and should be entered for verification. Additionally, under the ‘master list’, the Aadhaar number of any one of the accompanying passengers should also be updated. The validity will be only through an OTP.

The names of verified passengers accompanying them on the 'master list, can be stored by the users. The officials said that this should be done, before starting the process for booking more than six tickets a month. The goal of this new development would be to eliminate malpractices in ticket bookings as touts and travel agents cannot create fake user IDs anymore.

Under general quota, around six passengers can be reserved on a single ticket in the IRCTC portal, while only four passengers per ticket are allowed in the Tatkal bookings.

In December last year, the railways had made an announcement that to avail concessions from April 1, 2017, registration of Aadhaar with IRCTC was mandatory. But, after various forums opposed the idea, it dropped it.

SUPRAJA