Central Railway collects Rs 1.21 bn from errant travellers in Apr-Dec 2017

Central Railway has registered a record "ticket checking earnings" - the fine recovered for ticket-less or irregular travel - of Rs 1.21 billion from April to December 2017.

"The earnings realised during the period from April to December 2017 from ticket-less/irregular travel was Rs 1.21 billion against Rs 1 billion during the corresponding period of last year (2016), showing an increase of 20.46 per cent," it said in a release here.

This was the highest amount recovered during this period so far, it added.

In December 2017 alone, 206,000 cases of ticket-less or irregular travel and unbooked luggage were detected, against 181,000 cases in December 2016, it said.

The fine recovered from such errant travellers was Rs 87.6 million in December 2017, 21.73 per cent more than the amount recovered in December 2016, the release said.

In all, 24.41 lakh cases of ticket-less/irregular travel and unbooked luggage were detected during April 2017 to December 2017, against 20.69 lakh cases during the corresponding period in 2016.

Also, in December 2017, 439 cases of transfer of reserved journey tickets (which is not permissible) were detected and Rs 356,000 were recovered as penalty.

"We always try to ensure that ticket-less travelling is curbed and this campaign is part of our efforts. We have also provided new avenues to book or get tickets including mobile phones and ticket-vending machines," said chief commercial manager of Central Railway, Shailendra Kumar.