Mumbai: The railway administration is taking action against passengers enjoying free travel from the locals. Western Railway has collected a fine of Rs 173 crores from free passengers between April 2023 and March 2024. While action is also being taken against passengers traveling freely through AC locals, there has been an increase of 25 percent in the recovery of this penalty amount.
Regular ticket-checking drives are being undertaken to keep a check on free passengers in AC local trains. Through this, action was taken on 60 thousand free-loading passengers between April 2023 and March 2024. A penalty amount of Rs 2 crores has been recovered from this.
- Western Railway is constantly creating public awareness regarding the fact that genuine railway passengers in the Mail, Express along with locals on the Western Railway route are facing trouble of free passengers, it is a crime under the law to travel without tickets.
- Now it is not only public awareness, but the ticket checking campaign has gained momentum, checking of holiday special trains including passengers is being done at a rapid pace.
Batman team eyes night travelersIn March, Rs 16.77 crores have been collected from about 2.75 lakh passengers who traveled without tickets. In March, more than 1 lakh cases were found and Rs 4.80 crores were collected.Western Railway has deployed Batman teams to crack down on the local night commuters traveling for free.
Focus on movements
The passengers traveling without tickets from the first class are kept under the radar. The concept of Batman is suggested by the passengers and these teams have been deployed accordingly. Suspicious movements are monitored by the team while checking tickets.
Recovery of 46.90 crores from Mumbai suburbsContinuity is being maintained in the crackdown to curb free travelers. Accordingly, a penalty of Rs 173.89 crores has been recovered from the action taken on free passengers. This amounts to a penal recovery of Rs 46.90 crores from the Mumbai suburban locality.