RailEnquiry

If one goes by statistics, commuters on Delhi Metro’s second-longest Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre corridor have been the most unruly. In April alone, 634 penalties were imposed on commuters under various charges such as walking on Metro tracks, defacing Metro property, drunkenness, spitting, unlawful entry into coaches reserved for women, etc.In contrast, the Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre corridor (the longest, with maximum commuters) had just 184 fines imposed on commuters last month. The Dilshad Garden-Shahdara corridor fined 118 commuters while 167 penalties were issued on the Inderlok-Mundka corridor and 119 on the Badarpur-Central Secretariat corridor. The shortest corridor — Vaishali — recorded the least number of penalties (22).According to official estimates, the most common offence was men entering women’s coaches. As many as 656 fines were issued for this in March and 644 in April. With a fine of Rs 250 imposed on offenders under this section, the Delhi Metro earned Rs 1.64 lakh in March and Rs 1.60 lakh in April.Two other sections under which commuters have been found flouting rules the most are ‘spitting’ and creating a ‘nuisance’. In March, 172 commuters were fined for spitting while 148 were penalised in April. Under creating a ‘nuisance’ — a broadly defined section which includes obscenity, misbehaving with other commuters or unruly behaviour within station premises — 123 commuters were fined in March and another 127 in April.Officials said ‘unlawful entry into station premises’ and ‘walking on Metro tracks’ too have been problem areas. In March, 90 commuters were booked for walking on Metro tracks and 89 in April.Commuters have also been caught entering Metro stations in groups, using a single token or smart card.While 52 commuters were booked under this offence in March, another 64 were fined in April.“We have been facing far more cases of offences than those fined. Defacement of Metro property has been a major cause of concern but we try to forbid and warn passengers before imposing a penalty. Around 76 commuters were fined for this in March and 63 in April,” said a Delhi Metro official.One case of ticketless travel was recorded in March and nine in April, for which the fine is Rs 50. There were no instances of some offences. These include travelling on the roof, travelling beyond the authorised distance and unauthorised sale of tickets.