The Mumbai Division of Indian Railways, which transports 24 million passengers every day, has partnered with advertising firm FCB India to introduce “Lucky Yatra”, an initiative that turns every valid train ticket into a possible lottery win, as a creative solution to the ongoing problem of ticketless travel.

For suburban train passengers with valid tickets or season passes, the initiative gives a daily cash prize of Rs 10,000 and a weekly bumper prize of Rs 50,000.

The initiative, which will begin next week and run for eight weeks, is completely funded by FCB Interface Communication Pvt Ltd and does not charge passengers extra.

The Lucky Yatri Yojana aims to change commuter behavior from penalty-driven deterrence to reward-based motivation, as over 40 lakh people use Mumbai's CR network every day and an estimated 20 percent do not have a valid ticket.

The effort focuses on changing behavior rather than stepping up enforcement.

The railway intends to capitalize on the fact that lottery tickets are said to cost India more than $30 billion USD a year to induce more commuters to travel using valid tickets.

 

Now, every ticket has a unique number that entitles the owner to a daily cash prize draw.

A commuter is chosen at random each day by a ticket examiner at a suburban station. The cash prize will be given out immediately after a valid daily ticket or season pass has been confirmed. After a random selection of qualified travelers, the weekly prize of Rs 50,000 will be distributed in a similar manner.

All travel classes and ticket kinds, including those purchased using mobile devices and vending machines, are eligible for the program. The project, which is solely incentive-driven and aims to increase compliance and foster goodwill, will not include any additional fare load, CR officials emphasized.

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During enforcement campaigns, the Central Railway currently apprehends 4,000 to 5,000 ticketless passengers every day. By making purchasing tickets more attractive, officials think Lucky Yatri will lower these figures.