GUWAHATI, Nov 8 - The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has collected over Rs 36.77 crore as fare and penalty from ticketless travellers and persons travelling with irregular tickets and un-booked luggage during the first six months of the current fiscal.
During this period, the zonal railways has detected over 5.45 lakh cases of people travelling without tickets, travelling with irregular tickets and carrying un-booked luggage, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR Subhanan Chanda told The Assam Tribune.
�Special ticket checking drives like fortress check, ambush check and cross country check are being carried out on a regular basis to address the problem. Besides, the Special Task Force Team (Commercial) of the NFR headquarters and the divisional headquarters and the flying squad teams are also in action,� said Chanda.
When anybody is caught flouting the rules regarding ticket and luggage, the person concerned has to pay the fare as well as the penalty as per the law.
During the April-September period of this year, the NFR detected 2,57,247 cases of travelling without ticket and collected fare worth Rs 15,94,51,789 and penalty to the tune of Rs 6,49,82,285.
Another 2,69,576 cases of travelling with irregular tickets were also detected and the NFR collected fare totalling Rs 7,49,62,241, besides penalty of Rs 6,58,75,807.
There were also 18,661 cases of un-booked luggage which were detected during the first half of this fiscal, resulting in the collection of Rs 24,91,428 worth of penalty.
�All the divisions in the NFR zone have faced such problems to a large extent,� Chanda said. From 2016-17 to 2018-19, the NFR had detected 10,41,017 cases of ticketless travel and collected a total of Rs 88,80,00,832 from offenders.
There were also 10,00,675 cases of people travelling with irregular tickets, which were detected by NFR during the previous three financial years, resulting in the collection of Rs 52,24,36,676 as fare and penalty.
Besides, the NFR staff detected 1,15,802 cases of passengers travelling with un-booked luggage between 2016-17 and 2018-19, and collected fines to the tune of Rs 1,39,60,055 from such persons. Chanda said the rules are very strict in matters related to tickets and luggage.
