Over Rs 62 crore collected as fines during ticket checking drives, Rs 20 crore from Mumbai: Western Railway

The ticket checking drive on Western Railway line. Pic/WR

The Western Railway on Thursday said that it has collected over Rs 62 crore as fines during ticket checking drives from April to August 2024.

The officials said that Rs 20 crore was collected as fines from Mumbai suburban section alone.

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In an official statement, the Western Railway said that in order to ensure hassle-free, comfortable travel & better services to all bonafide passengers over Western Railway, intensive ticket checking drives are being carried out continuously over Mumbai suburban local services, Mail/Express as well as passenger trains and holiday special trains so as to curb the menace of ticketless/irregular passengers.

"The highly motivated ticket checking team under the supervision of senior commercial officers of Western Railway organised several ticket checking drives during the months of April to August 2024, thereby recovering an amount of Rs. 62.31 crore, which also includes over Rs. 20 crore from Mumbai Suburban section," the statement said.

According to a press release issued by Public Relations Department of Western Railway, during the month of August 2024, an amount of Rs. 4.96 crore was recovered through detection of 1.19 lakh ticketless/irregular passengers, including unbooked luggage cases.

The Western Railway statement said that in the month of August, the Western Railway realised fines amounting to Rs. 2.62 crore through detection of 82 thousand cases over Mumbai suburban section.

"To prevent unauthorised entry in AC local trains, frequent surprise ticket checking drives are carried out. As a result of these drives almost 23,800 unauthorised passengers have been penalised in April to August 2024 and over Rs. 78 lakh collected in fines," an official said.

The Western Railway appeals to the general public to travel with proper and valid tickets, the official said.

Mega Block in Mumbai

In an another statement, the Western Railway said that to facilitate the construction of the 6th line between Goregaon and Kandivali, a major block of 10 hours will be taken on the Up and Down Slow lines and Down Fast line between Goregaon and Kandivali stations from 00:00 hrs to 10.00 hrs during the intervening night of Saturday/ Sunday, i.e. on 07th/08th September, 2024.

According to a press release issued by Vineet Abhishek - Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, during the block, all UP slow line trains will run on the UP Fast line from Borivali to Goregaon. Similarly, all Down Slow line trains will run on the Down Fast line from Andheri, and these trains will be dealt at Patform No. 7 of Goregaon station. Between Goregaon and Borivali stations, all Down Slow line trains will run on the 5th line and due to unavailability of platforms, these trains will not halt at at Ram Mandir, Malad and Kandivali stations. Additionally, a few Churchgate-Borivali Slow train services will be short-terminated and reversed from Goregaon station.

Passengers are also advised that UP and DOWN Mail/Express trains will be subject to delays of approximately 10 to 20 minutes during the block period, the Western Railway said.