Central Railway has come down hard on ticketless travellers. The railway zone created history by recording the highest revenue from penalties for ticketless travel in any Indian Railways zone after reaching the Rs 300 crore mark in the current financial year.
Central Railway registered as many as 12,700 cases per day on average, or a total of 46.32 lakh cases of ticketless travel. Central Railway had earned the maximum revenue from such penalties in the last financial year also by earning Rs 214.41 crore.
Northern Railway took the second spot in this financial year with earnings of around Rs 282 crore from ticketless passengers.
The Mumbai division of Central Railway alone crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in revenue garnered from penalties for ticketless travel, during this period.
“Mumbai Division has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark and earned Rs 108.25 crore from 19.57 lakh cases of travelling without proper ticket, which translates to an average of nearly 5,400 cases everyday,” said a senior Central Railway official.
Bhusawal Division earns over ₹70 crore in fines
The Bhusawal Division earned Rs 70.02 crore from 9.06 lakh cases, the Nagpur Division earned Rs 39.70 crore from 6.16 lakh cases, and Solapur Rs 33.36 crore from 5.27 lakh cases, while the Pune Division earned Rs 24.27 crore from 3.36 lakh cases.
Besides, a special squad set up by Central Railway's principal chief commercial manager has earned Rs 24.65 crore from 2.91 lakh cases during current financial year.
20 TCs collect over ₹1 crore in fines
Central Railway also has the distinction of 20 ticket checkers having each collected more than Rs 1 crore from ticketless travellers
“The top three of these ticket checkers are D. Kumar, SB Galande and Sunil D. Nainani,” said a senior Central Railway official, adding that in the current financial year Kumar detected 22,847 cases of ticketless travel and collected more than Rs2.11 crore as fine from the passengers.
Galande detected 22,384 cases and collected fine of more than Rs 1.97 crore, while Nainani detected 18,165 cases and collected fine of more than Rs 1.59 crore.
“We have to face new challenges daily. Every passenger is different, reacting in their own way when caught by the TC. Some are soft spoken, many are aggressive and some are ready to pay. Making the passenger realise their fault and counselling them is a big challenge,” said a senior ticket checker on condition of anonymity as he is not permitted to speak with the media.
“Every day we have to deal with different kind of people and dealing with them accordingly is a big challenge for us,” said another ticket checker.
“To ensure comfortable travel and better services to all bona fide rail users, Central Railway conducts intensive ticket checking in suburban, mail, express, and passenger services, and special trains across all its divisions to curb ticketless and irregular travel,” said Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer of Central Railway.
“Central Railway appeals to passengers to travel with proper and valid railway tickets to avoid inconvenience and travel with dignity,” Sutar said.
