Mumbai: Despite Covid-19 curbs, railways made Rs 71 crore through fines in six months

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Railways seem to be minting money due to lockdown and related restrictions. Central Railway (CR) on Wednesday topped in the Indian Railways by earning Rs 71 crore in four months, by just fining passengers. Of the Rs 71 crore, Rs 11. 6 crore is from Mumbai. On Westen Railway (WR) Mumbai, a single-day intensive and massive ticket-checking drive at stations and trains yielded revenue of Rs 20.13 lakh in fines.

"In the period April 1 to September 20, 12.47 lakh cases of ticketless/irregular travellers were detected in suburban and non-suburban trains (long-distance trains) and an amount of '71.25 crore was realised as penalty. This is highest in terms of revenue among all zonal railways," CR's Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said.

In addition to this, during the period April 17 to September 30, special teams of ticket checking personnel detected and penalised 25,610 people for non-compliance with Covid-19 protocols. A total of 20,570 cases of passengers not wearing masks/face covers and 5,040 cases of unauthorised travellers were detected and an amount of '34.74 lakh and '25.20 lakh respectively was realised as fine on CR.

WR's Chief Public Relations Officer Sumit Thakur said, "An intensive drive was conducted on October 18 in the Mumbai division at stations and trains by deploying 167 ticket-checking staff and 20 RPF personnel. During this drive, almost 4,000 cases were detected and '20.14 lakh was realised as penalty."