New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) In an attempt to prevent misuse of reserved train tickets and reduce cases of travel on transferred tickets, the railways Friday decided that all air-conditioned class passengers will have to carry an identity proof on their journeys.

The new rules will come into effect from Feb 15.

Officials said the passengers of all AC classes would be required to produce the identity card in original as and when required, failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as without ticket and fined accordingly.

However, the identity card will not be required at the time of purchase of AC tickets from reservation counters or i-tickets, purchased through internet.

The instructions are in addition to the existing instructions under which the passengers with Tatkal tickets and e-tickets are already required to carry original proof of identity during the course of their journey.