Dimapur, Sep. 25 (EMN): The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has detected 59,463 cases of passengers travelling without ticket or irregular ticket in the month of August this year as against 28,427 in 2017 which indicates a steep rise in the number of passengers travelling without valid train tickets.
The NFR has also exacted an amount of INR 4.18 crore in the form of fine from the defaulters which led to a recorded increase of about 150% in the earning as penalty from the ticketless travellers, informed Pranav Jyoti Sharma, the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the NFR informed in a press statement received here on Tuesday.
The CPRO said that during the period from April to August this year, as many as 3,39,906 numbers of passengers were detected to be travelling either without ticket or with irregular tickets in trains against 2,75,173 number detected cases during the corresponding period of last year.
An amount of INR 23.42 cr. was realised as fine during April to August this year as compared to INR 17.45 cr. during the corresponding period of last year.
Sharma stated that in terms of cases detected, the NFR has shown an increase of 34.22% over the last year achievement as against the Indian Railways growth of 16.34% which is the highest amongst all zonal railways.
The NFR officials have been conducting surprise ticket checking drive in Mail Express and passenger trains to curb ticketless travel and also to provide comfortable journey to genuine passengers, he informed.
The officer mentioned that Section 137, of the Indian Railway Act of 1989 stipulates that passengers travelling without ticket, improper ticket or un-booked luggage as an offence which is punishable by imprisonment or fine or both.
Moreover, he said that the NFR, to discourage ticketless travellers, has also put systems in place whereby surprise ticket checking drive is conducted by ‘flying ticket checking squads of divisions as well as headquarter’.
Besides, ‘fortress checks’ are also conducted in stations for which task officers are nominated at Hq. and divisional levels from different department who are accompanied by security personal from Railway Protection Force and Govt. Railway Police, informed the chief public relations officer of the NFR.
