For domestic travel in India, millions of Indians use The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to book train tickets with just a click of a button. It has evolved from an application merely offering travel-related services to becoming an application offering various travel-related services, including booking flights, hotels, tour packages, and meals in advance. The portal allows passengers to book up to 6 tickets each month. However, if the customer chooses to link their Aadhaar card with the IRCTC account, they gain an advantage of booking up to 12 tickets each month! Also, to be able to use this feature, at least one of the passengers in the master list of passengers must verify their details through Aadhaar.
The process to link the Aadhaar number with the IRCTC account is performed online in a few easy-to-follow steps. However, it is advisable to perform the process before the tickets are booked.
Here’s how you can carry out the Aadhaar card link with the IRCTC account:
Head to the official IRCTC website i.e. www.irctc.co.in.
Next, click on the profile section and select the Aadhaar KYC option.
Here, you can add your 12 digit Aadhaar number and click on ‘Send OTP’ after checking the disclaimer box.
After you receive the OTP on your registered mobile number linked to the Aadhaar card, enter it and click on ‘Verify’.
On successful verification, the KYC details will be displayed on the screen
Once you’re done, click on the ‘submit’ button.
That’s it! Your Aadhaar number will then be linked with your IRCTC account.
The Aadhaar number of each passenger must be added to the master list before a ticket can be purchased online. All you have to do is follow these few quick steps so you can add a passenger with an Aadhaar number:
Head to the IRCTC e-ticketing portal.
Log into your account using your user ID and password.
Go to the profile section and then select the ‘master list’ option.
Here, mention all the new passenger information like the Aadhaar number, gender details, and date of birth as per the Aadhaar card of the passenger.
Once you’re done, click on the ‘Submit’ button.
While completing this process, the customer needs to keep some points in mind. On adding the passenger names, the names will show up in the master list and will have a status that is still pending verification. Once the verification is successfully done, the status will change from ‘pending’ to ‘verified’. Another point to remember is that this process does not require OTP verification. And you can verify the Aadhaar details of the passengers in the master list by using the edit button.
Users can book tickets directly from IRCTC Master Lists by selecting the passenger details they require. This helps to reduce the total time required for the entire booking process as the user will not have to enter passenger detail each time. Here is a step-by-step process to book tickets using the Aadhaar verified master list:
Step 1: Users must fill in the details about their travel and then look for relevant trains.
Step 2: Once the train is selected, check on the class that you wish to travel in and select the ‘book now’ tab.
Step 3: Next, choose the ‘select passenger from the master list’ option
Step 4: Once in the master list, select the names of the passenger/s that are already in it and click on ‘select passenger’.
Step 5: Lastly, all the details will be included in the booking section and you can go ahead with the payment option for booking your ticket.
Every IRCTC user has to get himself a verified Aadhaar ID that can be done using the Aadhaar KYC option that can be found in the ‘My Profile’ tab in your account page. In order to verify the user's Aadhaar, an OTP will be sent to the mobile phone number associated with the Aadhaar number. That’s it! The user will be Aadhaar verified.
Linking Aadhaar with IRCTC serves benefits to the user as they can book 12 e-tickets in a month as against only 6 e-tickets without the Aadhaar verification process.