Guwahati, May 20 (IANS): The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) collected more than Rs 10 crore in fines from ticketless travellers on trains, an official said on Monday.

Sabyasachi De, Chief Public Relations Officer of NFR in Guwahati, said, “Keeping a constant check against ticketless travellers, intensive drives were conducted and during the period from April 1 till May 19 this year, such drives led to the recovery of fines amounting to more than Rs 10.65 crore from ticketless travellers.”

According to an official statement, from April 2023 to March 2024, as many as 7,93,170 cases of ticketless passengers were detected by the NFR, leading to the recovery of more than Rs 66.27 crore in penalties and fare from the offenders.

“The preceding financial year of 2022-2023 saw the collection of Rs 62.98 crore in fines from 7,78,808 cases. Thus, in comparison, 14,362 more cases were detected during the last financial year, leading to 5.23 per cent higher earnings in terms of penalty and fare from the offenders,” De added.

Notably, travelling without a ticket or beyond the authorised distance may lead to the levy of excess charges and fares.

In case a passenger fails or refuses to pay the same on demand, he shall be in default of payment and will be prosecuted under the relevant sections of The Railways Act, 1989.

“Now passengers can also purchase unreserved tickets from one part of the country to another through the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) mobile application on their smartphones,” De said.