From October 1, the Indian Railways has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar for booking train tickets online.
If your Aadhaar is not linked, you will not be able to book tickets for the first 15 minutes after booking opens at 8 AM.
This change comes after Aadhaar was recently made mandatory for booking Tatkal tickets, where OTP verification is also required.
Without entering the OTP, the booking process cannot continue.
Currently, 2.3 crore people travel daily by train, and about 20% of them travel with reserved tickets, while the rest use general tickets or monthly passes.
Despite the new Aadhaar rule, there is still a way to book tickets without linking Aadhaar—a rule that nearly 80% of passengers are unaware of.
Alternative Way to Book Without Aadhaar
If you don’t have your Aadhaar linked due to issues like an outdated mobile number or errors in your Aadhaar card, you don’t need to worry.
The Passenger Reservation System (PRS) has been exempted from this rule.
This means you can still book your railway tickets directly at the station or PRS counter without needing Aadhaar.
At the counter:
Fill out the reservation form.
Submit it to the clerk.
Get your ticket issued normally.
Right now, only about 20% of passengers use PRS counters for reservations, which means the majority are still unaware of this option.
In short: Online bookings now need Aadhaar (from October 1), but you can still book at PRS counters without it.
