Identity card made compulsory for travelling in reserved ticket

     New Delhi, November 01, 2012: In a major policy decision, the Indian Railways has made it compulsory for all passengers travelling with reserved ticket to carry photo-identity card during journey.

     The new provision would be effective from December 01, 2012, an official release said here today.

     “Under this provision any one of the passengers booked on a PNR for undertaking journey in any reserved class has to produce any one of the prescribed proofs of identity in original during the journey failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly,” it said.

     The existing provision of the Tatkal scheme, where the passenger is required to show the same original proof of identity as indicated on the ticket shall continue, it clarified.

     With the new provision, the condition of carrying one of the prescribed identity cards has now been extended additionally to other classes of travel namely Reserved Second Class (2S), Sleeper Class (SL), III Economy Class (3E) and First Class (FC).

     “The change in the policy is aimed at facilitating the travel of bonafide and genuine passengers and simultaneously to check the scope for travel on transferred tickets.  It is also considered that the proposed change shall also be useful from the security point of view also,” the Government said.

     Earlier, passengers travelling on e-tickets, Tatkal tickets or Passengers undertaking journey in AC classes on the tickets issued through the computerized Passenger Reservation System (except in III Economy-3E class) had to produce original proof of identity during the journey.

     Further, the Ministry of Railways has also decided to expand the list of prescribed proofs of identity to include photo identity cards having serial numbers issued by public sector undertakings of State/Central Government, District Administrations, Municipal Administrations and Panchayat Administrations.

     The expanded list of the prescribed proofs of identity for undertaking journey on Tatkal ticket and other reserved classes would now be including Voter Photo identity card issued by Election Commission of India, Passport,  PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department, Driving Licence issued by RTO,  Photo identity card having serial number issued by Central/State Government which including Pension Pay Order (PPO),  Ration Card with photographs, Senior Citizen cards, Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, ESI cards (with photograph) issued for taking treatment in ESI dispensaries, CGHS Cards (with photograph) issued to individual family members of Central Govt. employees.

     Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized School/College for their students, Nationalised Bank Passbook with photographs, Credit Cards issued by Banks with laminated photograph, Unique Identification Card-Aadhaar, Photo identity cards having serial number issued by Public Sector Undertakings of State/Central Government, District Administrations, Municipal bodies and Panchayat Administrations would also be accepted.