chennai in a series of weekly raids conducted over six months the metropolitan transport corporation mtc caught 23322 ticketless travellers and collected a fine of rs 4116 lakh from them more than 80 officials formed around 20 teams and fanned across chennai for checking passengers in the period between january 14 and june 14 though we focused on vulnerable areas like t nagar central and egmore we kept moving around to ensure that there was an element of surprise said an mtc official in bangalore conductors often pocket money by not issuing tickets but collect a lesser value from the passenger it is a winwin situation for the passenger and the conductor the culture of ticketless travel is not very prevalent in chennai only collegegoing students especially those on the poonamallee high road are a little problematic said an official the mtc makes a little more than rs 3 crore from 45 lakh people who use its buses every day passengers were not solely responsible for ticketless travel conductors said in a crowded bus it was impossible to issue a ticket to everyone our government also gives out a lot of passes many times people say they have a pass and get away it is difficult to check everyone during peak hours said a conductor of a bus plying on the omr new ticketing machines that the corporation introduced in the last six months is also proving to be cumbersome for conductors these machines take seven seconds to print a single ticket i have noticed that my collection has gone down significantly since the new machines were introduced said the conductor a new model electronic ticketing machines are being introduced in a phased manner across the city in adyar it was introduced six months ago it was introduced in in mandaiveli two weeks ago