12 May,2023 06:54 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Pic/Western Railway
The Western Railway on Friday said that it conducted a special ticket checking drive at Mumbai railway stations and has collected Rs 16.76 crore as fines from ticketless travellers.
In a statement, the Western Railway said that with the special drive, the railways saw an increase of more than 238 per cent in terms of fines generated from intensive checking in AC local trains.
The Western Railway said, in order to ensure hassle-free, comfortable travel and better services to all bonafide passengers over Western Railway, intensive ticket checking drives are being carried out continuously over Mumbai suburban local services, Mail/Express as well as passenger trains and holiday special trains so as to curb the menace of ticketless and irregular passengers. The highly motivated ticket checking team under the supervision of senior commercial officers of Western Railway organised several ticket checking drives in the month of April 2023, thereby recovering an amount to the tune of Rs. 16.76 Crore, which also includes Rs. 4.71 Cr from Mumbai suburban section.
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According to a press release issued by Sumit Thakur - Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, during the month of April 2023, an amount of Rs.16.76 crore was recovered through detection of 2.46 lakh ticketless and irregular passengers, including unbooked luggage cases.
The Western Railway further said, in the month of April, Western Railway realised fines amounting to Rs.4.71 crore through detection of 83,522 cases over Mumbai suburban section. To prevent unauthorised entry in AC local trains, frequent surprise ticket checking drives are carried out. As a result of these drives more than 6,300 unauthorised passengers have been penalized in April 2023 and Rs. 21.34 lakhs collected in fines, which is 238.19 per cent higher than last year.
"The Western Railway appeals to the general public to travel with proper and valid tickets," the statement issued by Western Railway said.
