Bhavika Jain, TNN | Apr 25, 2013, 03.02 AM IST

MUMBAI: The government, after stopping Aadhaar registrations at housing societies and private-sector offices, will soon use BEST bus depots to double up as registration centres.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has shortlisted six bus depots at Borivli, Bandra, Wadala, Anik, Mulund and Mumbai Central for the Aadhaar centres.

These depots will cater to the BEST employees working there and also people living in the vicinity.

“These bus depots have been shortlisted because they see a lot of commuters and also have many employees working there. We plan to have at least 5-7 machines at these centres so that the enrolment is fast and without any waiting time,” said a senior civic official.

Currently, the BMC has 145 centres and plans to add more than 300 centres soon.

So far, only 68% of people have been registered with the Unique Identification Authority of India. To increase the number of registrations, the BMC has decided to hunt for more government premises where the centres can be set up. This was necessitated after the state government issued a new circular barring UID centres on private premises.

The rule has been changed so that limited amount of resources can be used to first enrol the middle and lower middle class population as they are the beneficiaries of the various government schemes for which the UID will be required. Hence, these camps must be set up on government premises.

Several government schemes, such as cylinder subsidy, disbursement of provident fund for state employees and receiving free educational items for civic schoolchildren will require a UID card to be submitted and linked to bank accounts. However, for such schemes to kick into effect, about 80% of a district’s population needs to be registered for Aadhaar.