Railways suffers Rs 35,000 crore loss from passenger train services in FY21

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Indian Railways on in last week said that it may incur a loss of Rs 30,000-35,000 crore in the passenger train sector— an aftermath of the breakdown of train travel following the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of now, Indian Railways is working just 230 Special trains, with a general occupancy of 75%. As indicated by railway ministry data, just a fourth of these trains have an occupancy rate of 100%. A fast ascent in COVID-19 cases and the across the nation lockdown have constrained the national carrier to put off designs to present more trains. Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman Railway Board, said:

The passenger segment is not doing well. We are running only 230 trains and these trains are not fully occupied. Overall occupancy is 75%. Earnings from the passenger segment were Rs 50,000 crores (last year). We don’t know how the corona situation will unfold.

He said the railways is banking on its freight revenue this fiscal, expecting freight earnings to hope half from the earlier year. “But certainly, the passenger segment earnings will be less. We are expecting passenger segment earnings to be 10-15% only. Whatever we will lose from this segment— Rs 30,000-35,000 crore—we will have to make it up from freight. That is the target we are keeping," he said.

According to budget estimates, the national transporter pegged earnings from freight at Rs1.47 trillion for 2020-21, while passenger revenue is estimated to grow to Rs 61,000 crores. Railway authorities said that these assessments are being re-worked because of the interruption brought about by the lockdown.

Freight revenue declined to near a third during the primary quarter of the budgetary year 2020-21 at ₹22,266 crore. As far as volume, it was down 21.4% year-on-year to 241.55 million tons (mt). However, Railway Board Chairman didn't unveil new targets.