The Central Railway, this year between April and November, earned around Rs 100.82 crore from passengers travelling without a ticket. The Indian Railways has booked more than 17 lakh people for travelling without tickets in the Central Railway zone.
The fines collected by the Central Railway includes Rs 26 lakh from 23,816 passengers for not wearing masks and violating the Covid-19 appropriate behaviour (CAB). Around 29,019 passengers were booked for not following the CAB such as crowding at booking offices and spitting in railway coaches while travelling or in railway premises.
The Central Railways collected around Rs 17.73 crore from 465,000 passengers travelling without railway tickets on the suburban trains.
The suburban railway lines in Central Railway includes trains that operate between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Kalyan/Karjat and Kasara railway stations, the harbour line between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel and the railway route between Thane and Vashi.
Chief Public Relation Officer of Central Railway Shivaji Shutar told the media, “The Bhusaval division has registered the highest revenue of Rs 33.74 crore in terms of earnings followed by Mumbai division with Rs 33.20 crore.”
The officer further added that the Mumbai division earned Rs 33.20 crores by fining people for violating the guidelines during travelling from suburban and non-suburban railway routes.
Shivaji Shutar further said, “It was our responsibility to check if people followed Covid-19 appropriate behaviour during travelling to prevent the upsurge of the deadly virus again. Many travellers were committing a crime by travelling ticketless and at the same time not following the CAB. In our endeavour to provide better services to rail users and curb ticketless travelling officials of Central Railway conducted intensive campaigns.”
The number of passengers travelling by local trains has increased since August. The Indian Railways currently allows only people fully vaccinated to travel on the local trains. People who wish to travel on local trains will have to get a one month pass issued from the India Railways after showing both doses of indoctrination certificate.
