Tickets worth over ₹2 crore were recovered by the Mumbai Division of the Western Railway (WR) in 2019. The majority of tickets booked via touts were electronic tickets (e-tickets).
Between January and November 2019 the railway protection force arrested 353 touts in 282 cases. They recovered 8,285 tickets worth over ₹2.07 crore, of which 8,050 were e-tickets worth nearly ₹2 crore.
The bulk of the tickets were bought online using fake IDs and software targeted at automatic booking. “We have created specialised teams to identify these fake IDs and track them down. Typically the touts target people who don’t understand e-ticketing and charge them multiple times for the same ticket,” S.R. Gandhi, senior divisional security commissioner, Mumbai Division, WR, said.
Senior railway officials said on the WR, the key hubs of touting were Andheri and Borivali. “A trend has emerged over the last year of touts booking tickets from other States and sending it to the city. However, this is a small proportion of the tickets we have seized,” a senior railway official said.
Mr. Gandhi said they have also cancelled tickets booked through touts, which would act as a deterrent for passengers seeking services from them. In 11 months in 2019, 4,315 tickets were blocked, leading to the cancellation of journeys of 14,474 people.
