Rs 1.26 crore recovered from ticketless rail travellers in Ludhiana

With over Rs 1.26 crore collected as fines from ticketless travellers in June, the Ludhiana junction topped all railway stations under the Ferozepur Division. Amritsar station stood second with a collection of Rs 61 lakh.

As per the details supplied by the Indian Railways, 40,244 ticketless travellers were caught last month. Of these, most were caught at Ludhiana railway station during the ticket checking drive.

A senior railway official said Ferozepur Division’s ticket checking teams are continuously checking trains to curb the tendency of ticketless travel. In June, the division’s ticket checking staff and Chief Ticket Inspectors detected 40,244 passengers travelling without tickets. They recovered approximately Rs 3.16 crore in fines from them.

To keep railway stations clean and prevent littering, regular checks are being conducted at major stations of the division, besides organising awareness campaigns. In June, 375 passengers were booked for littering railway stations under the Anti-Littering Act and over Rs 69,000 was recovered from them.

Divisional Railway Manager Sanjeev Kumar said that ticket checking drives will continue in Ferozepur Division. The main objective of the checks is to provide safe and comfortable travel facilities to passengers who hold valid tickets. Ticket checking ensures that unauthorised or ticketless travellers do not cause inconvenience to bona fide passengers, he added.

A railway official said ticketless travel causes loss to the Railways, besides inconveniencing other passengers.