Mumbai Gets 'BATMAN' To Stop Ticketless Travel In Local Trains: Report

Western Railway's Mumbai division has set up the BATMAN squad to conduct ticket checks inside the city's local trains and stations at night to bring down the cases of ticketless travelling.

Amid the surge in ticketless travelling in Mumbai local trains and railway stations, the Western Railway's Mumbai Division set up a dedicated team called the BATMAN squad to tackle the situation. BATMAN stands for 'Be Aware TTE Manning At Night' and has been set up to conduct ticket checks inside local trains and stations, especially at night, as ticket inspectors are largely absent after 8 pm.

The BATMAN squad began patrolling from the night of March 11. Since then, around 2,500 ticketless passengers have been fined resulting in the collection of a revenue of Rs 6.5 lakh for the Western Railways, Navbharat Times reported.

Responsibilities Of The BATMAN Squad

While the primary responsibility of the squad is to ensure ticket compliance, it is also supposed to monitor activities taking place at the railway stations during the night.

The enhanced vigilance will likely provide women passengers with a sense of safety and improve security at the stations, particularly during nighttime hours. With the establishment of this squad, the Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) will now be conducting safety checks in the women's coach as well, Navbharat Times reported.

Why The Need For BATMAN?

The ticketless and general ticket passengers were reportedly causing problems for those travelling in the AC locals at night. The passengers who purchased the tickets at almost five times the normal price to travel in AC coaches were forced to travel uncomfortably due to overcrowding due to lack of checking.

Several passengers who faced inconvenience also took to social media platforms to share their ordeal, which prompted the railway authorities to deploy the BATMAN Squad during the night hours.

The Western Railways had also launched a campaign recently to motivate the passengers to buy digital tickets. This initiative yielded positive results as the usage of the UTS mobile app for ticket bookings increased.

UTS stands for Unreserved Ticketing System and was launched by the Centre for Railway Information System in 2014. The app enables users to generate or cancel unreserved train tickets, renew passes, book seasonal tickets, and purchase platform tickets.