NEW DELHI: After witnessing a massive shortfall in revenue because of Covid-19 and the lockdown, Indian Railways has improved its position on this front in the last nine months of the 2012-22 financial year. There has been a rise in income from passenger traffic and sale of platform tickets at a hiked rate.
Till the end of 2019-20, the railways had generated record revenue of Rs 50,669.09 crore that fell to Rs 15,248.49 crore in 2020-21. Passenger services were badly hit during the lockdown. “Whatever revenue we generated during the lockdown was mostly from freight services. Later, after services of special shramik trains were started during the lockdown, the railway made some improvement in revenue generation,” said a senior railways official.
Sources said that the railways across its 18 zones have succeeded in increasing revenue from Rs 15,248.49 in 2019-20 to Rs 15,434.18 crore in 2021-22 up to September. It has also made improvement in generating revenue from sale of platform tickets during the lockdown and the post-lockdown period. Till 2019-20, the railways had generated Rs 160.87 crore from platform tickets that reduced to Rs 15.48 crore in 2020-21. This improvement came after the rate of these tickets was raised from Rs 10 to Rs 30 and Rs 50.
Bullet train by 2026-27
High-speed bullet trains in India is likely to become a reality by 2026-27. The railway has placed tenders for track-laying work and other formalities are being completed. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Japanese technology issued to run the bullet train. Land acquisition in Gujarat has been completed, while 31% of land needed in Maharashtra has been acquired.” He added that 1,400 pillars would be cast in the next six months.