In 2 months, Central Railway collects Rs 9.5 crore from unauthorised, ticketless travellers

In May alone, 54,000 ticketless/irregular travellers were detected and fined. File pic

Amid the complaints of crowding and the entry of unauthorised people in trains, which have been restricted to limited categories of travellers, Central Railway (CR) has collected an unprecedented Rs 9.5 crore in just two months by fining unauthorised and ticketless travellers.

"With complaints, the mega drive was further beefed up and we conducted intensive and regular ticket checking drives in suburban and non-suburban/mail express trains to ensure that only bonafide passengers travel in trains in accordance with government guidelines and follow Covid-19 protocols. From April 1 to May 31, 1.50 lakh cases of ticketless/irregular travellers were detected in non-suburban trains (long-distance trains) and suburban trains realising an amount of Rs 9.5 crore in penalties," a senior official said.

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In May alone, 54,000 ticketless/irregular travellers were detected and fines worth Rs 3.33 crore were collected. These included 32,000 cases in the suburban section yielding Rs 1.65 crore and 22,000 cases in the non-suburban section yielding Rs 1.68 crore. In addition, special teams of ticket-checking personnel caught 1,269 mask-less people and collected Rs 2,40,645 in fines from April 17 to June 2.

Railway officials said that in addition to the fines against ticketless travellers, the Maharashtra government has permitted Railways to fine people for pandemic-related violations and accordingly Rs 500 fine is being imposed for not maintaining Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. Around 2,018 cases of unauthorised travel violating the Disaster Management Act were also detected and Rs 10,09,000 was collected from April 28 to May 31. This includes passengers from non-essential categories travelling when they were not allowed to.