Central Railway Collects Record ₹100.5 Crore Penalty From 17.19 Lakh Ticketless Travellers Between April And August 2025

Mumbai: In a major crackdown on unauthorised and ticketless travel, Central Railway has realised a record penalty of Rs 100.50 crores from 17.19 lakh cases during the period April to August 2025.

"The ticket checking teams across divisions worked tirelessly to curb irregular travel by apprehending passengers travelling without valid tickets, with improper or invalid travel authority" said an official.

Sharp Rise in August 2025 Offences

According to CR, in August 2025 alone, 2.76 lakh ticketless travellers were caught, compared to 2.34 lakh in August 2024, marking an 18% increase. The penalties collected during the month surged to Rs 13.78 crores, a rise of over 55% compared to Rs 8.85 crores collected in the same month last year.

Division-Wise Penalty Collection

Division-wise data for the financial year 2025-26 (April to August 2025) reveals that Bhusaval division collected the highest penalty amounting to Rs 36.93 crores from 4.34 lakh cases, followed by Mumbai division with Rs 29.17 crores from 7.03 lakh cases. Nagpur division realised Rs 11.44 crores from 1.85 lakh cases, Pune division Rs 10.41 crores from 1.89 lakh cases, Solapur division Rs 5.01 crores from 1.04 lakh cases, while the Headquarters accounted for Rs 7.54 crores from 1.04 lakh cases.

Multi-Pronged Ticket Checking Strategy

"Central Railway has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to detect unauthorised travel, which includes station checks, ambush checks, fortress checks, intensive checks, and mega ticket checking drives. These operations are carried out across all types of trains—Mail/Express, Passenger, Special, and Suburban trains, particularly in Mumbai and Pune divisions" said an official.

New Measures to Prevent Ticketing Fraud

"In a significant step to curb ticketing fraud and minimise revenue loss, Central Railway has discontinued the booking of tickets via Static QR code on the UTS mobile app after reports of widespread misuse by passengers. This move has helped check the misuse of the paperless ticketing system" further added official.

Passenger-Driven Monitoring Yields Results

To further improve monitoring, Mumbai Division introduced a dedicated WhatsApp number for passengers to report unauthorised travel in AC suburban locals and First Class coaches.

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This initiative has yielded encouraging results, with Rs 1.68 crores collected from 59,029 cases of irregular travel in AC locals during April to August 2025. Additionally, special checking in First Class coaches during the same period resulted in Rs 2.26 crores in penalties from 70,900 cases.

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