The South East Central Railway’s (SECR), Raipur Division, during an intense ticket checking drive recovered around Rs 642.40 lakh by penalising over 4 lakh passengers in a time period of 10 months between April and January in the current financial year (2013-14).
The Raipur Division, during the corresponding period of the previous year, had realised about Rs 560.5 lakh by imposing fine on around 3.46 lakh passengers travelling without a ticket, invalid ticket or taking unbooked luggage with them, a SECR press release issued here stated. A hike of about 14.6 per cent in the fine collected and 16.5 percent hike in number of cases registered in Raipur Division were recorded during the aforesaid period this year.
Notably, the Raipur Railway Division frequently conducted surprise ticket checking drive in different trains. In January 2014, as many as 36,607 passengers were fined for travelling without ticket, taking un-booked luggage or possessing invalid tickets and Raipur Division had collected fine of about Rs 62.24 lakh, officials said. As a result of frequent ticket checking drive, significant increase in selling of ticket had been witnessed in the division, claimed officials of Raipur Division who made an appeal to the general public to travel with valid ticket and purchase platform ticket before entering the Railway Station.