Western Railway recovers Rs 114.18 cr as fines during ticket checking drives from April to October

A train conductor checks tickets

The Western Railway (WR) collected a record fine amounting to Rs 114.18 crores during ticket checking drives conducted this year, the WR said in a statement on Monday.

According to WR, the ticket checking team, under the supervision of senior commercial officers of Western Railway, organised several ticket checking drives during the period from April to October 2022, thereby recovering an amount to the tune of Rs 114.18 crore.

In October, an amount of Rs 17 crore was recovered through the detection of 2.38 lakh ticketless and irregular passengers, including unbooked luggage cases, said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway.

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He further said that during the financial year 2022-23, a total of 16.78 lakh ticketless and irregular passengers and unbooked luggage cases were detected, as against 6.79 lakh cases detected during the corresponding period last year, which is an increase of over 147.23 per cent. Fine of Rs 114.18 crore was recovered from these passengers which is an increase of 212.22 per cent over the corresponding period of last year, which was Rs 36.57 crore.

To prevent unauthorized entry into AC local trains, frequent surprise ticket checking drives are carried out. As a result of these drives more than 22300 unauthorized passengers have been penalized since April 2022, said Sumit Thakur.