Vijayawada: Mega ticket checking drive yields Rs24.5 lakh as penalty

Vijayawada: The Vijayawada Division of the South Central Railway organised a mega ticket checking drive across the length of Vijayawada Division on Monday. The mega drive was held under the supervision of Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Rambabu Vavilapalli with around 135 ticket checking staff actively taking part. A mega fortress check was also conducted at Vijayawada Railway Station.

During the entire check including the mega fortress check at Vijayawada, a whopping Rs 24.5 lakh penalty was realised in a single day by registering 3,484 cases against irregular travel.

This is the highest-ever penalty realised in a single day in the records of Vijayawada Division. A total of 48 trains were checked by forming teams in all the sections of Vijayawada Division. Squad TTEs, station staff and newly recruited pro-commercial clerks/ticket collectors took part in this mega drive. The check was conducted in two slots of 12 hours in the morning and afternoon by the staff.

A total of 86 ticket checking staff and 10 RPF staff participated. During the fortress check all the entry/exit points were thoroughly manned and passengers were regulated through these gates only.

The loose end entry/exit points identified during the drive were cordoned to regulate the flow of passengers. The passengers were requested to form a queue at the counter to purchase journey or platform tickets. Passengers were educated to refrain from trespassing and use foot over bridges (FOBs) for safer transit.

Also passengers carrying heavy luggage were directed to the luggage office for booking and passengers carrying bulky articles were advised to book it in the brake van of Express/Passenger trains.

At Vijayawada railway station alone, Rs 8.68 lakh was realised by booking 1,294 cases. During the drive nine unauthorised vendors were also booked and penalised for a sum of Rs 45,000.

During the entire drive, 1,641 cases of ticketless travel, 1,825 cases of irregular travel were registered, and penalty of Rs 15.41 lakh and Rs 9.10 lakh respectively was realised.

Rambabu Vavilapalli stated that the objective of the ticket checking drive is to curb ticketless, irregular travel and un booked luggage and to create a moral fear among habitual offenders. The drive was not only to plug leakage of revenue but also to ensure comfortable and safe journey of bona fide rail passengers. He appealed to the passengers to download the UTS on Mobile App for hassle-free ticket bookings and help them in promoting paperless and cashless transactions.

Divisional Railway Manager Narendra A Patil complimented the ticket checking staff for successfully organising the drive and recording the highest ever penalty in a single day.