Railways set to cross 1.5 lakh crore on freight push

NEW DELHI : Indian Railways’ revenue is set to cross Rs 1.5 lakh crore on Wednesday, a day after earnings from freight hit the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.

While overall revenues climbed 6.5% during the fiscal so far, they are short of the annual growth target of over 9% for 2023-24. Railway officials are, however, confident the annual target will be met as goods loading will rise post-rains as economic activity remains buoyant.

Passenger revenue touched Rs 43,101 crore during the financial year up to October 13. Reserved passengers helped the railways generate 7% higher earnings of Rs 31,875 crore, although there was a 4.7% decrease in the number of passengers to 47.4 crore. This indicated that the revenue per passenger has gone up with the introduction of trains such as Vande Bharat.

Earnings from the unreserved category went up 3.8% to Rs 11,326 crore, while traffic rose 12% to 366 crore. In volume terms, freight loading went up 3.7% to 940 MT during the fiscal up to October 14, data sourced from railways showed. Revenue from coal, which is a mainstay, has seen a 3.3% increase to nearly Rs 51,000 crore, while loading has gone up by 5.5% to 463 million tonnes.