Railway will meet its expenditure from its earning: Yadav

Despite railway operations hit severely due to nationwide lockdown to prevent Covid-19, the Indian Railways is confident of meeting its operating expenses from its earnings.

"Indian Railways has so far incurred 87 per cent loss in passenger revenue, down from Rs 53,000 crore last year to just Rs 4,600 crore, owing to the Covid pandemic," Railway Board chairman V K Yadav told reporters here.

Though the revenue from the passenger segment came down drastically, earnings from freight loading increased due to enhanced transportation of non-traditional commodities like food grains and fertilisers. This year freight loading and its revenue would increase compared to last year.

"We are confident that the railways will meet its expenditure from its own earnings," he said.

Cutdown in expenditure and increased freight loading helped the railways to overcome some losses, he added.

Giving details of the 508 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed rail popularly known as the bullet train project, Yadav said that the Maharashtra government has assured the Railways that the remaining land will be provided for the bullet train project in the next four months.

He said that to date, 68 per cent land has been acquired for the project.