The Aadhaar card will soon be made a mandatory for online booking of train tickets, PTI reported on Thursday. The change has reportedly been made to deter touts from blocking tickets in bulk and making fraudulent bookings.

The document will be made compulsory for senior citizens applying for concessions on their train ticket fare from April 1.

While releasing the Indian Railways’ business plan for the new financial year, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said that 6,000 point-of-sale machines and 1,000 automatic ticket vending machines would be installed across the country to promote cashless bookings. The ministry will also launch an integrated ticketing app by May.

“The Aadhaar number will be required for a one-time registration step at the IRCTC ticketing site,” an unidentified official told PTI. “The step is aimed at eliminating touts from registering with fake identities.”