Indian Railways is planning to link ticket purchases to citizens’ national ID program numbers.
Confirming a rumor from last summer, the organization has laid out its Aadhaar plans in its business roadmap for 2017-2018. As part of a larger effort to transition to cashless ticketing, including a new mobile app planned for launch this May, Indian Railways says that Aadhaar registration will be required for online ticket bookings. The move will help to prevent fraudulent bookings alongside a new measure that will make Aadhaar required for all ticket bookings applying the seniors’ discount.
Reporting on the development, India Today notes that because Indian Railways is operating a government service, its Aadhaar requirement could put it into conflict with judicial rulings that restricted the government’s use of Aadhaar in such deployments. But with Aadhaar’s reach becoming deeper and more extensive across Indian society, such conflicts are going to be harder and harder to avoid. And in this case, citizens who don’t register their Aadhaar numbers with Indian Railways can still book tickets in person.
Sources: India Today, India.com
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March 3, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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