No need to carry ID on train! Railways to accept digital Aadhaar, driving licence from DigiLocker

Don't you fret about the safety of your valuables when travelling on a train? Indian Railways' latest notification will provide some respite. Now train passengers don't have to carry hard copies of their ID proofs, Indian Railways will accept the digital avatars of documents such as the Aadhaar and driving licence. However, these copies should be kept in one's DigiLocker, a digital storage service operated by the government that enables Indian citizens to store certain official documents on cloud.

Indian Railways sent a missive to all zonal principal chief commercial managers that these two documents would be accepted as valid ID proof if and when provided from DigiLocker. "If a passenger shows Aadhaar or driving licence from the 'issued documents' section by logging into his DigiLocker account, the same should be considered as valid proof of identity," the order said.

Railways clarified that the same would not be considered if the documents are uploaded by the passenger himself and are in the 'uploaded documents' section, as mentioned in a PTI report.

As part of the Narendra Modi government's Digital India movement, DigiLocker can currently store digital driving licences and Aadhaar. The cloud-based platform had also tied up with CBSE to provide digital versions of marksheets of students.Subscribers can also integrate their Permanent Account Number (PAN) with DigiLocker.

Similarly, last year the railway ministry permitted mAadhaar, that is Aadhaar card on the mobile app, as a proof of identity. Passengers have to open the app and login to present the digital Aadhaar card.

(With PTI inputs)