59,463 cases of ticketless travel by train passengers detected in August

GUWAHATI, Sept 27 - Officials of the Northeast Frontier Railway detected altogether 59,463 cases of ticketless travel or use of irregular tickets by passengers in August 2018.

A statement issued by NF Railway said that against 28,427 cases detected during the corresponding period of last year, the figure of August 2018 shows a steep rise.

In August, an amount of Rs. 4.18 crore was also realised as penalty followed by an increase of about 150 per cent in earning of NF Railway as penalty from ticketless travellers.

Moreover, from April to August this year, as many as 3,39,906 passengers were detected to be travelling either without ticket or with irregular tickets on trains against 2,75,173 passengers detected during the corresponding period of last year.

�An amount of Rs 23.42 crore was also realised as penalty during April to August this year as compared to Rs 17.45 crore during the corresponding period of last year. It is also to be noted that, in terms of numbers of cases detected, NF Railway has shown an increase of 34.22 per cent over the last year�s achievement as against the Indian Railways� growth of 16.34 per cent. This is the highest amongst all zonal railways,� the statement said.

It added that to discourage ticketless travelling, NF Railway has also put systems in place whereby surprise ticket checking drives are conducted by Flying Ticket Checking Squads of divisions as well as headquarters. Fortress checks are also conducted at stations. For this officers are nominated at headquarters and divisional levels from different departments who are accompanied by security personnel from Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).