Palakkad division: Record ticket checking earnings

The Palakkad Division has netted a record ticket checking earnings of Rs 1.10 crore in the month of January through various checks and penalty on ticketless and unauthorised travel from 25,849 passengers.

The previous highest in ticket checking earnings of the Division was Rs 1.02 crore, in the month of December, 2019.

The total earnings from the ticket checking segment include charges collected while on conversion of ticket to higher class and extension of journey tickets by Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) manning reserved coaches in the month of January is Rs 2.03 crore which is also a new record.

A release from M K Gopinath, Public Relation Officer, Palakkad Division stated that in addition to the ticket checking staff at stations and on trains, special squads were deployed in various sections for daily checks. Lady ticket checking staffs were deployed on ladies only coaches as there were complaints of ticketless travel. A total of 1,006 checks in stations and 3,195 checks in trains were conducted in the month. The impact of ticket checking is visible in number of tickets sold and in the earnings of the Division form passenger transportation segment. In the month of January, there is 3.09% increase in the number of second class season tickets sold in the Division.

During the month, in the second class ordinary ticket sale there is an increase of 7.37% and in Mail and Express (Second Class ) ticket sale increased by 5.66%. The earnings from second class and Mail/Express tickets have increased by Rs 5.94 lakh. The total number of originating passengers have increased by 28.27 lakh by the end of January 2020.

Pratap Singh Shami, Divisional Railway Manager, Palakkad and Jerin G Anand, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager appreciated the ticket checking staff for this achievement. During the above checks, promotion of UTS on mobile app was also conducted to sensitise passengers to avoid rush at counters during peak hours.