Over Rs 62 crore collected as fines during ticket checking drives: WR

The Western Railway on Thursday said that it has collected over Rs 62 crore as fines during ticket checking drives from April to August 2024The officials said that Rs 20 crore was collected as fines from Mumbai suburban section aloneIn an official statement the Western Railway said that in order to ensure hasslefree comfortable travel amp better services to all bonafide passengers over Western Railway intensive ticket checking drives are being carried out continuously over Mumbai suburban local services MailExpress as well as passenger trains and holiday special trains so as to curb the menace of ticketlessirregular passengersThe highly motivated ticket checking team under the supervision of senior commercial officers of Western Railway organised several ticket checking drives during the months of April to August 2024 thereby recovering an amount of Rs 6231 crore which also includes over Rs 20 crore from Mumbai Suburban section the statement saidAccording to a press release issued by Public Relations Department of Western Railway during the month of August 2024 an amount of Rs 496 crore was recovered through detection of 119 lakh ticketlessirregular passengers including unbooked luggage casesThe Western Railway statement said that in the month of August the Western Railway realised fines amounting to Rs 262 crore through detection of 82 thousand cases over Mumbai suburban sectionTo prevent unauthorised entry in AC local trains frequent surprise ticket checking drives are carried out As a result of these drives almost 23800 unauthorised passengers have been penalised in April to August 2024 and over Rs 78 lakh collected in fines an official saidThe Western Railway appeals to the general public to travel with proper and valid tickets the official saidMega Block in MumbaiIn an another statement the Western Railway said that to facilitate the construction of the 6th line between Goregaon and Kandivali a major block of 10 hours will be taken on the Up and Down Slow lines and Down Fast line between Goregaon and Kandivali stations from 0000 hrs to 1000 hrs during the intervening night of Saturday Sunday ie on 07th08th September 2024According to a press release issued by Vineet Abhishek ndash Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway during the block all UP slow line trains will run on the UP Fast line from Borivali to Goregaon Similarly all Down Slow line trains will run on the Down Fast line from Andheri and these trains will be dealt at Patform No 7 of Goregaon station Between Goregaon and Borivali stations all Down Slow line trains will run on the 5th line and due to unavailability of platforms these trains will not halt at at Ram Mandir Malad and Kandivali stations Additionally a few ChurchgateBorivali Slow train services will be shortterminated and reversed from Goregaon stationPassengers are also advised that UP and DOWN MailExpress trains will be subject to delays of approximately 10 to 20 minutes during the block period the Western Railway said