Title - Ration card okay as ID for non-AC train travellers

MUMBAI: Ration cards and bank passbooks will be enough to endorse your ticket booking and travel aboard the trains.

Indian Railways have expanded the list of prescribed proofs of identity for passengers to book tickets and endorse it aboard.

Now the photo identity cards with serial numbers issued by public sector units of state and centre, district administrations, municipal bodies and panchayats will be allowed to be produced for booking and endorsement.

However, the provision of ration cards and passbooks is not applicable for all classes of e-tickets and Tatkal tickets and the tickets issued through reservation counters for travelling in Air - conditioned classes and First Class. According to railways the facility is applicable only for the passengers belonging to the lower economic classes.

According to this new relaxation, attested photocopy of Ration Card with photograph and Nationalized Bank Passbook with photographs will be accepted as a prescribed proof of identity only in case of reserved tickets booked through computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters, for undertaking journey in sleeper and Second Reserved Sitting classes. These photocopies should be attested by a Gazetted Officer or the Chief Reservation Supervisor or Station Manager / Station Master, said the statement issued by the railways.