E-Paper
Chandigarh: 1,597 fined for ticketless travel in CTU buses in a year
As per the data, over the past year from November 2022 to October 2023, the department has imposed a total fine of ₹3.56 lakh against 1,597 cases of ticketless travel in Chandigarh Transport Undertaking buses
Despite the implementation of an intelligent transport system (ITS) in the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses, the UT transport department has been unable to curb the cases of ticketless travel in buses.
As per data, over the past year from November 2022 to October 2023, the department has imposed a total fine of ₹3.56 lakh against 1,597 cases of ticketless travel in CTU buses. Apart from this, 13 fraud cases have also been reported in which money was taken from passenger but the ticket was not issued. In such cases, a fine of ₹5,483 has been imposed on employees.
According to reports, in four cases, employees were found without uniforms, while action was taken against drivers in 13 cases when the buses were driven over the flyover or out of the scheduled route.
UT transport director Pradhuman Singh said, “We have deployed teams to catch passengers travelling without tickets in CTU buses. All types of violations are being monitored by the department and appropriate action is also being taken.”
CTU operates buses from 5 am to 11 pm on local and long routes. At present, the public transport unit has around 580 buses at different depots, including 178 buses from depot number 1, 170 from depot number 2, 138 from depot number 3 and around 100 from depot number 4. All 80 electric buses with depot are running on local and sub-urban routes. Similarly, long-route buses are running from depot number 1.
The department has 126 inspectors, of which around 80 have been deployed to catch ticketless travellers and other violations. With these officers, three teams are working on local routes, while eight teams are working on long routes.
On average, nearly 133 cases of ticketless travel were reported every month, said an official, adding that whenever someone was caught travelling without a ticket, the violator was charged 10 times the ticket cost.
While the conductors are kept under check by the inspectors, these officers are also further monitored by the central teams for the transparent functioning of the department.
The UT transport department had implemented ITS, under which CCTV cameras were installed in all the buses of the department. Also, the buses were linked with the control room through the GPS system, so that these buses could be tracked at any time. The ITS project was completed at a cost of ₹23 crore.
Several facilities have been provided for buses under the ITS project. In this, passengers can see the route and next destination on the internal board. An emergency alarm facility has been provided on the buses. Real-time electronic displays have also been installed at all bus stops, which keep the exact time of arrival of buses known.
