CR’s men in black rake in ₹300 crore from ticketless travellers in 2022-23

The ticket checking staff of Central Railway (CR) have collected ₹300 crore from such travellers in 2022-23, on both outstation as well as suburban trains. It is a sharp rise from last year’s kitty of ₹214 crore. The other routes on the suburban system – the Western and Harbour lines – have added ₹100 crore as fines

Mumbai: The railways have scored big earns this financial year, thanks to a multitude of cavalier commuters who chose to travel ticketless.

CR’s men in black rake in ₹300 crore from ticketless travellers in 2022-23

The ticket checking staff of Central Railway (CR) have collected ₹300 crore from such travellers in 2022-23, on both outstation as well as suburban trains. It is a sharp rise from last year’s kitty of ₹214 crore. The other routes on the suburban system – the Western and Harbour lines – have added ₹100 crore as fines.

The CR authorities fined 46.32 lakh citizens to achieve this milestone, thanks to the diligence of the men who can be spotted by their ubiquitous black blazers at railway stations. Together, they have surpassed fine collection target across all zones of Indian Railways.

Twenty ticket checkers on CR have garnered over ₹1 crore each.

“The Mumbai Division has crossed the ₹100 crore mark. (Last year it was approximately ₹98 crore.) The ticket checkers earned ₹108.25 crore off 19.57 lakh cases. It is the first time that any zonal railway has crossed ₹300 crore through ticket checking,” said Shivaji Sutar, Chief PRO, Central Railway. This section of Mumbai’s suburban line ferries close to 44-45 lakh commuters daily.

Ticket examiner Dharmendra Kumar has earned the distinction of making over ₹2.11 crore on CR from 22847 cases. The 46-year-old, who joined the railways two decades ago, said, “Once caught, ticketless travellers go into a mode of denial – they pretend they did not do it on purpose. The most common excuse that we hear are unavailability of tickets or a rush for time because of an emergency.” Kumar added that today on suburban lines announcements are made regularly inside trains to not obstruct railway officers from going about their duties, which has brought about some change in the attitude of travellers who willingly show their tickets or passes. “Earlier they used to almost bar ticket examiners from entering local trains during peak hours,” said Kumar.

Sunil Nainani, another ticket checking staff of CR, who bagged 18165 cases and generated almost ₹1.60 crore in 2022-23, said, “Most ticketless travellers on AC trains are from Kalyan, Thane, Kurla and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. There are also cases commuters travelling without valid tickets inside the AC locals. Some pretend to pay money but manage to slip away cleverly.” Nainani, 56, joined the railways in the late 1980s.

Bhim Reddy, 58, CR’s chief ticket inspector, said that one of the primary challenges for officers is to be able to make people understand why they are being fined. “The passengers ask us the reason behind the fine amount as the prices differ on various routes. That needs to be explained to them,” said Reddy, who collected ₹1 crore in fines this year.