CHENNAI: Noticing a high incidence of people traveling without valid tickets in trains during summer vacations, Southern Railway’s Chennai division has started cracking the whip. In April alone, ticket inspection has yielded a fine amount of more than Rs 60 lakh. Ticket-less travel is seen more during summer vacations and festival seasons.

Last financial year, Chennai division collected Rs 6.12 crore by cracking down on ticket-less travelers.

This includes fines levied for traveling without tickets, traveling in upper class using a lower class ticket and non-payment of baggage fees. More than 16,000 people were fined for violating rules in close to 100 checking drives that were carried out last year. More number of raids were conducted in April, June and July last year.

More than 2,000 people were fined in April, 2007. While 1,703 people and 1,905 people were fined in June and July.

Chennai Central-Gudur, Chennai Central-Arakonam and Chennai Egmore-Villupuram are the sections where large number of people travel without tickets. In suburban trains, commuters travel without tickets and also purchase second class tickets and board first class compartments. In long distance trains, a majority of the cases pertained to travelers boarding reserved compartments after purchasing unreserved tickets.

This year the drive has earned Rs 60.11 lakh by way of fines, which is well above the target set for April 2008.
"Special checks will also be conducted in addition to routine checks that are carried out during rush season," said a railway official. The stations that are vulnerable include Mambalam, Tambaram, Chengelpet,

Guduvanchery, Perambur, Ponneri, Minjur and Triruvallur. Hence, the squads focus more on these stations. They concentrate at these railway stations before fanning out to other places along the stretch. "They check in the trains and also at the platforms."