Indian Railways collects a massive amount from ticketless travellers! The Western Railway zone of the national transporter has recovered an amount of Rs 93.96 crore in the last eight months – and the whopping sum has been collected from over 19.19 lakh cases of ticketless travellers. The Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the Western railway zone, Ravinder Bhakar was recently quoted in a PTI report saying that the fines recovered from ticketless travellers between the period of April 2019 and November end of 2019 are 9.46 per cent higher than the sum recovered from ticketless passengers in the corresponding period last year.
According to Bhakar, in the month of November 2019 alone, Western Railways recovered an amount of Rs 10.59 crore from 2.14 lakh cases of ticketless travel. These cases included those of unbooked luggage as well. Moreover, as many as 336 beggars, as well as 363 unauthorized hawkers, were also apprehended, the CPRO further stated. Additionally, the commercial department of Indian Railways also conducted a total of 1,861 checks against touts and anti-social elements between the months of April and November, he added.
Recently, Piyush Goyal in Lok Sabha announced that Indian Railways earned an amount of Rs 139.20 crore from the sale of platform tickets in the financial year 2018-19. Moreover, up to the month of September 2019 during 2019-20, the national transporter earned an amount of Rs 78.50 crore from sale of platform tickets, the Railway Minister said. Apart from this, Indian Railways also earned a sum of Rs 230.47 crore from advertisements and shops including those on railway station platforms in 2018-19. An amount of Rs 128.40 crore was earned by Indian Railways from advertisements and shops up to the month of September 2019.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that in the second quarter of the current financial year, the national transporter saw a dip of Rs 155 crore in passenger fare earnings and Rs 3,901 crore in freight fare earnings compared to the last year.
