Challan may follow ticketless traveller home

Railway officials who are part of the multi-transport agency for the integrated ticketing system have said, at recent talks between agencies providing public transport in Mumbai, the idea of mobile service providers monitoring ticketless travellers was discussed. According to this plan, the errant commuter will be flagged and the challan or notice of the fine will arrive at his or her residence.

Railway officials, who were present at the meeting with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), said that that the idea of the fine notice being sent to errant commuters’ homes was being discussed, with the plan that the ticketing system would be shifted to smartphones. “The metro, monorail and Railways all have their own apps; the BEST has said that it has allocated funds for the same and will have it up and running within the next six months. So, people are not completely alien to using their phones for tickets. The plan is to integrate all this into one application on your smartphone that will detect your presence once you use any mode to commute and verify the validity of your ticket,” said a senior railway official, on the condition of anonymity.

For the purpose of detecting commuters, companies that provide mobile networks will have to be pulled in. “The mobile companies will have to help with this detection. Once an invalid ticket is read by our system, the details of that person like his address will be made available to us and we can send the person a challan at his home,” said the official.

The Railways had received severe criticism when it launched its application ‘UTS app’ for the Mumbai suburban network in October last year, as both Central and Western railway have also seen only 500 commuters use this application from the combined 80 lakh commuters who have season