SCR drive against ticketless travel yields Rs 5 lakh

Vijayawada: In a ticket checking drive conducted by the staff of South Central Railway at Vijayawada Railway station on September 13th, as much as Rs 5 lakh was realised in the form of penalties from the ticketless passengers, said the Divisional Railway Manager.

Under the supervision of Chief Commercial Manger of passenger and catering service Gnaneswara Rao, the raids were held with 117 ticket checking staff, 20 railway protection force, 31 government railway personnel, 22 Bharat Scouts and Guides men.

While in action, all the possible escape routes in the station were sealed with security personnel. Around 64 important express trains and 51 passenger trains were thoroughly checked at the station, said the Manager.

A total of 1466 cases of ticketless and irregular travel were detected. An amount of Rs 5.08 lakh was realised towards penalty from the offenders. The effect of the ‘fortress check’ resulted in the rise of sale of tickets across the counters by 15 per cent and the sale of platform ticket by 33 per cent, he added.