Railway collects only 48 paise per km from passengers against Rs 1.16 cost: Ashwini Vaishnaw

The cost of railway passenger fare and services comes to around Rs 1.16 per kilometre but railway charges only 48 paise per kilometre, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament.

Around Rs 62,000 crore social obligation subsidy is given on passenger fares, the Minister said in Rajya Sabha while replying to a discussion on the working of the ministry.

The railways set the target to ferry 1,000 crore passengers every year in the next 10 years from the current 800 crore, and increasing the cargo load from 140 crore tonne to 300 crore tonne

To meet this, the national transporter needs to target revenue of Rs 3.5 lakh crore and an investment of Rs 3-lakh crore every year to meet the country's aspirations.

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The annual investment in railways between 2009-2014 was Rs 45,980 crores which was doubled by the BJP Government to Rs 99,511 croes in 2014. And the budget too has been increasing. Today it stands at Rs 2,45,800 crores, he said.

On the freight corridor, the Minister said the concept note for the corridor came in 2004, the foundation station was laid in 2006, but not even a single kilometre was commissioned. Today 1,010 kilometres have been commissioned, Vaishnaw said.

The minister said investment in the northeast during 2009-2014 was only Rs 2,122 crore which was increased almost two times by the Prime Minister to Rs 5,531 crore and it has not stopped there.

He said the target is to make over 5,000 LHB coaches this year which will replace five to six trains every month.

About recruitment in railways, Vaishnaw said there were 2,42,709 appointments during 2009-2014 and after that 3,44,646 appointments have been done and recruitment is on for 1,40,713 positions.

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