Tatkal ticket holders will now have to carry ID proof

New Delhi, Jan 31 (PTI) Passengers travelling ontatkal tickets must now carry their identity proof in originalor face the prospect of being treated as ticket-lesstravellers and penalised.

Dogged with complaints of alleged irregularities inthe ''tatkal scheme'', Railways have directed that passengerstravelling on such tickets must produce proof of theiridentity from February 11 onwards.

Any one of the passengers travelling in a group haveto produce the ID proof "failing which all passengerstravelling on the said ticket will be treated as travellingwithout tickets and will be charged excess fare and penalty asper rules", a statement issued here said.

The identity proof could be a voter photo identitycard, passport, PAN card, driving licence, photo identity cardissued by Central or State Government, student identity cardissued by recognised school/college, nationalised bankpassbook with photograph and credit cards issued by banks withlaminated photograph.

No identity proof is, however, required to be producedat the reservation counter while getting the tatkal ticketbooked, it said.

The tatkal scheme was introduced in 1997, with theprovision that passengers booking tickets would indicate theiridentity card number at the time of booking and would berequired to carry the same card during the journey. Thisprovision was subsequently withdrawn in August 2004.

Railway officials said the latest move was aimed atputting to end complaints of bulk booking and the role oftouts in cornering such tickets.

Railways had last year also barred e-ticket agentsfrom accessing online tatkal bookings from 8 AM to 9 AM

whenbooking commences for the day.

The move comes at a time when the Railway Ministry isunderstood to be considering a proposal to introduce ''tatkaltrains'' on busy routes, a mention of which is expected in theRailway Budget.