Indian Railways Has More Ticketless Travellers Than Singapore’s Population! Rs 1377 Cr Recovered

Indian Railways have been up to news since some time now and all for different reason. Right from redeveloping new stations, to installing airport like security systems in its railways stations, to privatizing the railways coach manufacturing, there have been a lot going on in this domain.

Today, we bring to you the number of people Indian Railways have fined and the amount it totaled to, for ticket-less travelers in the last 3 years. Indian Railways has earned a whopping Rs 1,377 crore through financial penalties from ticket less travelers in the given period.

IR Earns Rs 1,377 crore as Penalties from Ticketless Travellers

There has been so many people we as individuals know, including us who have traveled without a ticket and have been penalised by the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE). During the process, Indian Railways have earned Rs 1,377 crore in the last three years.

In fact, there has been a hike in the latter’s earnings from ticketless travellers by 31% from 2016. These details were revealed after a Madhya Pradesh-based activist filed an RTI. Even during the first 10 months of the current financial year, around 89 lakh passengers were caught without any tickets. This number is higher than the countries like Israel, Switzerland and Singapore, which are already advanced.

The  Parliament Railway Convention Committee in 2018 stated that there had been a  loss in revenue due to ticketless travel. To intensify the drive against ticketless travellers across India, zonal railways were asked to fix annual targets for every TTE.

Indian Railways earned Rs 405.30 crore as penalties in 2016-17, Rs 441.62 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 530.06 crore in 2018-2019.

Penalties for Ticketless Travellers

Indian Railways is looking forward to curbing this problem of ticketless travellers. For this, it has taken several measures. If a person travelling without ticket is caught red-handed, they’ll have to undergo the following steps:

• He must pay a minimum fine of Rs 250 along with the cost of the ticket.
• On denying to do so, the person will be handed over to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and is charged under Section 137 of the Railways Act.
• The person is then presented in front of a magistrate.
• The m magistrate can fine an amount of Rs 1,000 on this person.
• On further denying to do the needful, the person shall be jailed for up to six months.