BENGALURU: Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) on Thursday morning completed collection of a total fine of One crore from its commuters for not wearing masks properly within its premises and on trains. A total of 10,113 cases have been booked up to January 5 this year.
A fine of Rs 250 is levied for every violation with checks intensified within trains from New Year due to the surge in Covid cases in the city.
The overall sum collected represents fine collected from March 24, 2021 until morning of January 6, 2022. This excludes the months of May and June in 2022 when no one was booked.
A top Metro official told TNIE, “We reached the one crore penalty figure at 11.30 pm on Thursday.” Until Wednesday (January 5) night, BMRCL had collected a sum of Rs 99,90,320.
According to data released by BMRCL, the maximum violations were witnessed on Reach-2 (West Line from City railway station to Mysuru Road) at Rs 25,13,630 and on Reach-1 (The East Line from MG Road to Baiyappanahalli at 22,44,420.
From January 1 to January 5, the focus was on booking cases inside trains and Rs 2,49,950 was collected from commuters.
A S Shankar, Executive Director, Operations and Maintenance told TNIE, “This is not something we view as any achievement and is done for common good. We are really not interested in booking our commuters and penalising them. We are taking these measures as per norms laid down by the Government of Karnataka and BMRCL.”
Asked about the action that could be taken if the booked person did not have the fine amount, Shankar said that debit and credit cards are accepted by the machines carried by the home guards with them. “They convince them to pay up the sum by asking the commuter to get it transferred from friends or family. They can also alight at any Metro station and make payment through QR code faciliy available at all stations,” he added.
BMRCL ridership averages between 3.2 lakh to 3.5 lakh a day presently.
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