BENGALURU: Ticketless travellers at stations under the Bangalore Railway Division have been having a pretty hard time. The relentless checks have resulted in a whopping 4,59,167 cases of being booked in the last ten months and a penalty amount of over Rs 25 crore collected from passengers. Compared with the corresponding period last year, the number of cases booked as well as the fine amount collected is much higher, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Railway Division, A N Krishna Reddy told The New Indian Express.
“We have collected nearly Rs 3 crore extra this year and booked 23,873 cases more. It was a sustained effort throughout the year that has helped the Commercial Division mobilise this revenue for the Railways,” he said. This also includes fines levied on those without a platform ticket which costs Rs 10. The penalty for it Rs 250 plus cost of the platform ticket.
Elaborating Reddy said, “We conducted 17 ticketing drives wherein a senior official would lead staff in the operation. The station would be made into a fortress so that no one without a valid ticket ticket can leave from any entry or exit in the station. In addition, we did ‘ambush’ checks wherein a group would suddenly reach a station and enter a train and carry out a sudden check throughout the train.”
“Irregular travel cases, which refers to those who have an unreserved ticket but travel in sleeper class or those having a sleeper ticket but unauthorisedly travelling by a two-tier or three-tier coach accounts for the bulk of the overall fines collected,” the SDCM said.
While the luggage limit permitted in sleeper is 40 kg and in AC coaches is 50 kilos, countless passengers overshoot the limit and unbooked luggage is emerging as a good source of revenue of late. Explaining that the TTEs were performing an extremely tough job, the official said, “Many people are upset about having to pay the penalty when caught. They immediately accuse the examiners of being rude while the staffer is merely performing his or her job.”