CHENNAI: With the IRCTC having increased the cap for booking online tickets to 12 per month for Aadhaar-verified rail passengers, the RPF has intensified its drive to prevent the misuse of this facility by touts and travel agents.
On Friday, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested a travel agent at Thiruninravur for allegedly selling train tickets for higher prices. He booked the e-tatkal tickets using multiple user IDs linking Aadhaar in the IRCTC portal, said RPF sources.
Effective from November 1, aiming to encourage Aadhaar-based rail ticketing system, the IRCTC has increased the ticket cap from 6 to 12 for those passengers who have linked their Aadhaar with the IRCTC account.
Since then, many travel agents have linked their Aadhaar cards and booked a large number of general tickets and sold them to illegally, said railway sources.
Acting on a complaint from the Railways and a tip-off, the RPF team, led by Jolarpettai RPF inspector L S Sivanesan and Crime Intelligence Inspector Ravindra Thakur, obtained a search warrant from the Special Railway Metropolitan Magistrate at Chennai Central on Thursday.
The team then raided the office of SV Travels at CTH Road in Thiruninravur on Friday and caught the travel agent, S Dinesh (35), red handed while he was handing over the tickets to passengers.
The inquiry revealed that Dinesh had booked multiple tatkal e-tickets by creating multiple user IDs in the IRCTC website. He collected exorbitant fares from the rail passengers for every class for selling general tickets and tatkal tickets.
Police seized e-tatkal tickets worth Rs 5,400, two laptops, mobile phones and two SIM cards.
Though he was an IRCTC agent, he did not book tickets through agent ID, but created multiple personal user IDs and booked tickets. He collected Rs 200 more from the rail passengers per ticket, added the railway officer.
The condition of travel agents in Chennai and other parts of the State are no different, said railway sources.
“In addition to the ticket fare, all travel agents collect Rs 200 to Rs 250 more for sleeper classes and Rs 300 to Rs 500 more for AC classes for the trains operated within Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
However, the agent commission would go up to Rs 1500 to Rs 2,500 per ticket for sleeper classes to Howrah, Raipur, Nizamudin and Santrakanchi during festivals and weekends.
“Elderly people, pregnant women and patients who travel at the eleventh hour never hesitate to pay extra money to get the berths for these routes. The RPF should monitor such travel agents closely,” said a railway officer. The arrested agent was remanded in judicial custody for 15 days.