Indian Railways In Sound Financial Condition, Covid Losses Recovered: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Indian Railways’ financials are in good situation with steady enchancment efforts underway, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw knowledgeable the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Throughout a debate on the working of the Railways Ministry, Mr Vaishnaw famous that the nationwide transporter has overcome Covid-related challenges and recovered the losses, with passengers returning to coach journey and each passenger and cargo visitors exhibiting progress.

Throughout 2023-24, Indian Railways reported a income of roughly Rs 2.78 lakh crore towards bills of Rs 2.75 lakh crore. Main expenditure parts embody workers prices (Rs 1.16 lakh crore), pension funds (Rs 66,000 crore), power bills (Rs 32,000 crore), and financing prices (Rs 25,000 crore).

“Railways is fulfilling its bills from its personal earnings due to good efficiency. …General, the monetary situation is nice and we try to enhance it on fixed foundation,” Mr Vaishnaw said.

The minister highlighted that Railways subsidises passenger fares whereas producing income from cargo and freight operations.

Whereas the precise price per kilometer stands at Rs 1.38, passengers are charged solely 73 paise, leading to a complete passenger subsidy of roughly Rs 57,000 crore for 2023-24.

Mr Vaishnaw emphasised that Indian prepare fares stay the bottom in comparison with neighbouring international locations.

“When you have a look at a journey of 350 km, Rs 121 is the fare of basic class in India, Rs 400 in Pakistan, Rs 413 in Sri Lanka. This is identical in nearly all classes,” he famous, including that fares have remained unchanged since 2020.

In spite of the rise in gasoline costs, wage prices as a result of implementation of Seventh Pay fee, we’ve got not hiked the fares since 2020 and have tried to offset it with cargo earnings, he stated.

“The monetary situation of Railways is kind of recovered because the COVID-19 droop,” Mr Vaishnaw stated.

Vitality prices have “stabilized” at Rs 30,000-32,000 crore, with the railways financially benefiting from electrification initiatives applied after 2019.

The minister additionally outlined a number of achievements, together with elevated passenger and cargo visitors.

By March 31 this yr, Indian Railways is projected to rank among the many world’s prime three international locations in cargo carrying capability at 1.6 billion tonnes, behind solely China and america.

Different notable accomplishments embody alternative of about 50,000 km of tracks, development of greater than 12,000 underpasses and flyovers, rebuilding of 14,000 bridges, and manufacturing of 41,000 Linke-Hofmann-Busch coaches (LHC).

“In the third time period, Integral Coach Manufacturing unit (ICF) coaches can be changed with LHC coaches,” Mr Vaishnaw added.

The minister stated that this yr 1,400 locomotives are being produced in India, which is greater than the mixed manufacturing of America and Europe. It is a large achievement. Additionally, about 2 lakh new wagons have been added to the whole fleet of Indian Railways.

Indian railway passenger coaches are being despatched to Mozambique, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, whereas locomotives are being exported to Mozambique, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

As we speak, the under-frame of the bogie is being exported to the UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Australia and different international locations. The necessary a part of the facility prepare, propulsion, is being exported to France, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Romania and Italy.

Mr Vaishnaw stated there’s a laser-sharp give attention to railway security. Many technical modifications have been made. Longer rails, digital interlocking, level-crossing gates, fog security gadgets and ‘Kavach’ are being rolled out quickly. Now extra work is being executed than ever earlier than and the outcomes of that are seen.

In 2025, the railway can even obtain Scope 1 Web Zero. The goal of Scope 2 is by 2030, he stated, including that the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted and the work executed by the railway to learn the atmosphere can be fully offset.

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)