06 November,2023 05:15 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Pic/Western Railway
The Mumbai division of the Western Railway on Monday said that it collected Rs 94.51 crore as fines during intensive ticket checking drives between April to October 2023.
In an official statement, the Western Railway said, in order to ensure hassle-free, comfortable travel & better services to all bonafide passengers over Western Railway, intensive ticket checking drives are being carried out rapidly over the Mumbai suburban local services, Mail/Express as well as passenger trains and holiday special trains to curb the menace of ticketless/irregular passengers.
The Western Railway said, the highly motivated ticket checking team under the supervision of senior commercial officers of Western Railway organised several ticket checking drives during the months from April to October 2023, thereby recovering an amount to the tune of Rs. 94.51 crore, which also includes Rs. 24.38 crore from Mumbai suburban section.
According to a press release issued by Sumit Thakur - Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, during the month of October 2023, an amount of Rs.13.32 crore was recovered through detection of 2.17 lakh ticketless/irregular passengers, including unbooked luggage cases.
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It said, in the month of October, the Western Railway realised fines amounting to Rs. 3.64 crore through detection of over 77,000 cases over Mumbai suburban section. To prevent unauthorised entry in the Mumbai AC local trains, frequent surprise ticket checking drives are carried out. As a result of these drives around 41,500 unauthorised passengers have been penalised during the period April to October 2023 and Rs. 136.74 lakhs collected in fines, which is about 86.73 per cent higher than the same period of last year.
"The Western Railway appeals to the general public to travel with proper and valid tickets," the Western Railway said.
Meanwhile, in an another statement, the Western Railway last week said, owing to their popularity and commuters' growing demand, Western Railway has decided to increase the number of AC local trains in the Mumbai Suburban Railway, with effect from November 6.
With the introduction of 17 new services, the total number of AC trains will now rise from 79 to 96. To meet the demand of passengers on the Dahanu line, a pair of Dahanu Road to Andheri local trains is being extended to Churchgate.
"For the benefit of passengers and to reduce crowding, 17 more AC services are being augmented over Western Railway. There will be no change in the total number of services; that is, the count is 1,394 services including the 96 AC local train services," WR Chief Public Relations Officer Sumit Thakur said.
