Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Rs 21 crore realised from ticketless travellers

By PRANJAL BHUYAN

GUWAHATI, Dec 16 - Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has intensified ticket checking drives in trains and railway stations and the surprise checks have yielded fines and penalty worth around Rs 21 crore so far this fiscal.

�We have intensified surprise ticket checking drives in mail, express and passenger trains. The drives have been undertaken as per guidelines of the Railway Board,� NFR Public Relations Officer Nripen Bhattacharya told The Assam Tribune today.

He said that flying squads consisting of senior officials, Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP), commercial staff and other staff have been engaged in undertaking such drives to discourage ticketless travelling.

�Even senior officials like Additional Divisional Railway Manager Sanjay Nayar have personally participated in such drives. During one such exercise earlier this month, passengers in as many as 14 trains were checked. The recent drives have led to some positive results as far as decline in the number of ticketless travellers is concerned and such drives will be intensified,� Bhattacharya said.

Officials said that during April-November of the current financial year, special drives undertaken in Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar divisions under NFR had resulted in detection of around 3.45 lakh cases of travelling without ticket or irregular ticket and travelling with un-booked luggage. Penalty to the tune of almost Rs 21 crore was realised from the defaulters during this period.

During a single day on December 9, a massive ticket checking drive in Guwahati and Kamakhya stations by officials of Lumding Division led to detection of 375 cases of ticketless travelling and recovery of Rs 1,76,873 towards fare and penalty.

As per Section 137 of the Indian Railway Act of 1989, travelling without ticket, improper ticket or un-booked luggages are offences punishable by imprisonment or fine or both.

Fortress checks are also being conducted at stations. For this, officers have been nominated at zonal and divisional levels from different departments. They are accompanied by security personnel from RPF and GRP during the drives.

Officials said that there is a need to keep up the momentum because ticketless travel not only causes huge financial losses to the Indian Railways, but also causes discomfort to bona fide passengers.

Next Story