NEW DELHI/ GURUGRAM: From next April, people applying for new driving licence or for renewal will have to mention the Aadhaar number. The road transport ministry, which has put a draft notification to include Aadhaar as the main proof of identity and address, will notify the new norm next month for its roll out.On Friday, Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I have already had a word with Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, in this regard and the process to link Aadhaar with driving licence would be set in motion soon. Aadhaar is a safe and secure tool for good governance and empowerment. It would be done soon to check the menace of multiple licencing.” He was speaking after inaugurating the Haryana Digital Summit in Gurugram.TOI, on March 26, had first reported about the government’s move to check the menace of multiple driving licences under one name. Till now some adopted fraudulent means to beat the suspension of licence for traffic, criminal offences or to get themselves a fake identity. They could get new licences from different regional transport offices (RTOs) in different states. The transport ministry has already created an online depository of 11.5 crore driving licences named “Sarathi”.A ministry official said the issue of linking all 1,300 RTOs to the central depository will be taken at the transport development council meeting at Vadodara on Tuesday. The council is the apex body of state transport entities. According to a random test done by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in 2014, the total number of fake or duplicate driving licences in India was around 74 lakh, which is equal to the total population of Hong Kong. NIC had checked six crore licences.