Railways’ revenue up 92% YoY to ₹33,476 cr during April-Oct

Indian Railways earned ₹33,476 crore during April-October 2022, recording 92% growth as compared to ₹17,394 crore revenue earned during the same period last year, the railways' ministry data shows.

In the reserved passenger segment, the total passengers who travelled in railways during April-October 8, 2022, stood at 42.89 crore vs 34.56 crore during the same period last year, up 24%. The revenue generated in this category during this period was ₹26,961 crore, up 65% from ₹16,307 crore during the same period last year.

In the unreserved passenger segment, a total of 268.56 crore passengers booked tickets during April-October 8, 2022 vs 90.57 crore during the same period last year, up 197% YoY. In this segment, the railways generated revenue worth ₹6,515 crore during April-October 8, 2022, up 500% from ₹1,086 crore during the same period last year.

In terms of monthly freight loading, the railways recorded the best-ever September monthly freight loading of 115.80 MT in Sep’22. The incremental loading in September was 9.7 MT i.e. growth of 9.15% over September 2021. The railways achieved an incremental loading of 6.8 MT in coal, followed by 1.2 in iron ore and 1.22 MT in balance other goods, 0.4 MT in cement & clinker and 0.3 MT in fertilisers.

The Centre this week also hiked the dearness relief by 4% with effect from July 1, 2022, for railways pensioners and other central government employees.

In August, the railways also slashed the land licensing fee to 1.5% from 6% earlier, thereby liberalising the land licencing policy. It’ll also pave the way for its strategic divestment of the state-owned Container Corp. of India Ltd (Concor). The revised railways land policy allows long-term leasing of land for cargo-related activities for 35 years at 1.5% of the market value of land per annum.

The major reduction in railways land licensing fees is expected to attract more cargo, thereby increasing its modal share in freight transportation and reducing logistics costs. It'll also bring more revenue to railways and could generate 1.2 lakh jobs, says the government.

Besides, the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last month approved a proposal to redevelop three major railway stations -- New Delhi railway station, Ahmedabad railway station and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Mumbai.

The government is planning to invest ₹10,000 crore in these three projects. The work will be carried out in 2-3.5 years. The projects will provide 35,000 estimated jobs and facilitate 2 million every day. It’ll improve the daily experience of over 2 million passengers.