Western Railway goes after ticketless travellers, collects Rs 13.46 crore in fines; 258 persons jailed

Besides other things, one key problem that Indian Railways has been facing for long is the issue of ticketless travellers. Every year, ticketless passengers cost the public transporter crores of rupees in passenger revenue. The railways' passenger earnings stood at Rs 4051.78 crore in February 2019. The national transporter has been struggling with a high operating ratio as it spends around Rs 111 to generate every Rs 100. Thus, it becomes appropriate for railways to launch a crackdown on the ticketless passengers.

In one such move, Western Railway has conducted regular checks during March, 2019 where it detected about 2.45 lakh cases of ticketless/irregular travel including unbooked luggage. This yielded a whopping Rs 13.46 crore, which is 49.87 % more than the corresponding month of last year. Besides, 329 beggars & 631 unauthorized hawkers etc were apprehended, evicted, fined and 258 persons were sent to jail, said the WR.

According to a statement by the WR, as many as 252 checks were conducted during the month against touts and other anti-social elements by Western Railway’s Commercial Department. "As a result, 144 persons were apprehended and prosecuted and fined under various sections of Railways Act. During the month of March, 2019, 61 school children above 12 years of age were detected traveling in the ladies compartment of suburban trains and were removed from ladies compartment by Surakshini squad," it said.

In its endeavour to provide better services to its bonafide rail users and also to curb ticketless travelling, the WR has regularly been taking necessary steps. Senior Officers have also been closely monitoring the revenue loss due to ticketless travel and such other irregularities.