* platform tickets
Posted on December 28th, 2008 by Alex. Filed under India.
If you want to say good-bye to your relatives or welcome them at an Indian train station, you might ending up wasting the whole day. Especially in the case that you forgot to buy a platform ticket. Platform ticket? It is a little slip which allows you to enter the platform area of the train station. The higher the importance of the considered train station, the higher is the price for the ticket. It should be between 2 and 3 Rupees. The fine of getting caught is around Rs.500.
But this is not the worst problem: If someone gets caught and the culprit is not able to bribe the police at the station, he or she has to wait the whole day till the magistrate arrives and listen to the case. Anyway the fine needs to be paid additionally. So, next time if you enter the train station to say good-bye to your beloved ones, do not forget to buy a platform ticket at the usually well hidden counter.
Oh, and one more tip: It might be tempting to avoid the under- and overpasses to take the shortcut to the train. If you get caught, you will spend the night in jail. This happened to a friend of mine in Chennai. And the best thing: To go to the police station, he crossed again the tracks, but this time he was escorted by the police. 