In a bid to control crowding at stations in the summer season and curb misuse of alarm chain pulling, the Central Railway has increased the platform ticket rates from Rs 10 to Rs 50 on a temporary basis from May 9 to 23 at some stations in Mumbai and neighbouring cities, an official said on Monday.
The platform ticket price is proposed to be increased as a temporary measure at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Dadar station and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, as well as neighbouring Thane, Kalyan and Panvel stations for 15 days with effect from Monday, he said.
"A total of 332 cases of alarm chain pulling were reported in Mumbai division last month. Out of these, 53 cases were registered based on valid reasons, while 279 cases did not have valid reasons," Central Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said.
As many as 188 offenders have been prosecuted under provisions of the Railways Act for pulling the alarm chains without sufficient or valid reasons and an amount of Rs 94,000 has been realised as penalty, the official said.
The Central Railway has appealed to passengers not to resort to alarm chain pulling for unnecessary and frivolous reasons, as it inconveniences the other travellers.
