Central Railway recovered Rs 140.81 crore in fines from over 18 lakh ticketless travellers in five months, after doubling the minimum penalty to Rs 500.

Compared with the same five month stretch last year, the number of cases rose by around 5%, from 17.19 lakh to 18.03 lakh.

But the money recovered jumped by more than 40%, from Rs 100.50 crore to Rs 140.81 crore.

That gap comes largely from the revised penalty, which was raised from Rs 250 to Rs 500 per case.

On an average day, railway staff caught around 11,000 people travelling without valid tickets and collected close to Rs 92 lakh in fines.

Breaking it down by region, the Mumbai division alone accounted for the largest share, with 8.80 lakh cases and Rs 58.46 crore collected.

Bhusaval came next at Rs 35.52 crore from 3.42 lakh cases, followed by Pune at Rs 16.29 crore and Nagpur at Rs 15.83 crore.

Solapur and the Central Railway headquarters added Rs 6.13 crore and Rs 8.57 crore respectively. Even in August alone, the trend held.

Central Railway caught slightly fewer people that month compared with August last year, yet still collected Rs 19.50 crore in fines, a rise of over 41% year on year, purely because of the higher penalty amount.

To catch offenders, teams have been relying on a mix of station checks, surprise inspections at unexpected points, and large scale ticket checking drives across mail, express, passenger and suburban trains in Mumbai and Pune.

Travelling without a valid ticket counts as an offence under the Railways Act and can attract further penal action beyond the fine itself.

Central Railway has urged passengers to travel with valid tickets, saying the collected revenue goes toward better passenger amenities, safety and infrastructure.

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