The Western Railway zone of Indian Railways is facing an annual revenue loss of around Rs 5,000 crore because of the COVID-19 pandemic. General Manager of Western Railways, Alok Kansal was recently quoted in a PTI report saying that many people are still reluctant to travel by train because of fear of novel coronavirus. The zonal railway is incurring an annual income loss of Rs 5,000 crore within the passenger trains segment because of the coronavirus pandemic, which affected passenger train services and led to a drop in the number of railway travelers. Among the passenger trains that are currently being operated by Western Railways, the trains are running with only 10 percent occupancy, the GM stated.
According to Kansal, before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Western Railway zone used to operate about 300 passenger trains. However, to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, the government stopped passenger train operations throughout the nation in March the last yr. He further stated now the operation of passenger trains is coming back on track and this is likely to improve the zone’s revenue. Western Railways, during the last 11 months, has steadily restarted 145 trains out of its 300 passenger trains. Thus, about 50 percent of the zonal railways’ passenger trains have been resumed, he stated.
The Western Railway zone is going to restart six more passenger trains within the next seven days, within the state of Madhya Pradesh, the GM stated. He further clarified that at present, Western Railways is operating its passenger trains as particular trains in view of the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines, and only those carrying reserved train tickets are allowed to travel. Last yr, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Western Railway zone ran as many as 1,234 Shramik Special trains services from May 1 to 31 to ferry nearly 19 lakh individuals to their destinations in various states, the GM added.
