As train services get back on track, Ludhiana sees rise in ticket violators

Railway officials attribute this increase in ticket violations to the unavailability of ticket-window facility at the station. They say that since the counters are not available, only people with online reservations are able to travel, which may be the reason why some, unable to

With almost 90% of the train services restored in view of the dwindling Covid-19 cases, railway authorities in Ludhiana are seeing an increase in passengers travelling without tickets.

Special women team of RPF Ludhiana interacting with women passengers at the Ludhiana railway station on Tuesday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

In July alone, the railway authorities caught 914 ticket offenders and collected fine of ₹6,76,945 from them. In June, 161 such offenders were caught fined ₹94,105 in all.

Railway officials attribute this increase in ticket violations to the unavailability of ticket-window facility at the station.

Anil Kumar, inspector, Railway Protection Force, said, “As of now, ticket counters are not operational at the Ludhiana railway station, due to social distancing considerations. So right now, only people with online reservations are able to travel. This may be the reason for increased ticket violations.”

He added that the number of persons caught travelling without tickets has increased over the past few days as more and more trains hit the track.

(HT PHOTO)

Another official added, “We found that people were buying platform tickets, which are available at the counters, and boarding the trains. When our teams caught them, they claimed that they had just come to drop someone. After observing this trend, we started sending more teams inside trains to check for ticket offenders.”

Officials said most of the ticket offenders were found travelling to Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. “Our teams conducting special drives to nab the offenders,” said inspector Kumar.