Central Railway earns over Rs 1 lakh per day from various types of ticket checks conducted

Mumbai: Central Railway’s Mumbai Division rolled out a multi-pronged ticket-checking push across its heavily loaded suburban network, deploying “Fortress”, “Ambush” and other special drives to curb ticketless and irregular travel and protect revenue and earned revenue through Rs 1 lakh in fines daily.

In April and May 2026, special checks conducted in addition to routine inspections recovered Rs 62.08 lakh in 61 days, booking 14,744 cases — an average recovery of Rs 1 lakh per day from 241 cases.

A “Fortress Check” involves cordoning stations and screening every passenger at entry and exit points with teams from ticket-checking staff, RPF and GRP. “Special Fortress” drives scale this up under senior officers, with 50-100 personnel and surprise deployment. “Ambush Checks” are sudden onboard raids on running trains to catch short-distance offenders. Spot and intensive checks target specific coaches, gates, stations, trains or fraud patterns, while cross-country checks bring in outside teams to reduce tip-offs and influence.

The Mumbai division operates 1,820 suburban services daily, including 108 AC locals, carrying an average of over 40 lakh commuters across corridors such as CSMT-Karjat/Khopoli/Kasara, CSMT-Panvel/Uran, CSMT-Mahim and Thane-Vashi.