The Indian Railways is once again aiming to increase passenger traffic to beyond Covid-19 pandemic levels but it will be doing so with lower revenue expectations. According to the Budgetary Estimates for 2022-23, the national transporter expects to ferry 8.6 billion passengers in the year. The exact same number of passengers was estimated by the railways in the Budget 2021-22.
Under the revised estimates for 2021-22, the Indian Railways targets to ferry only 3.5 billion passengers during the current financial year.
These higher footfalls are based on expectations that the COVID-19 pandemic is fading away and travel would once again resume. This was the perception when Budget estimates for 2021-22 were also made but they were hit by the second wave of the pandemic.
In terms of revenue projections, the Indian Railways had expected to rake in Rs 61,000 crore from ferrying passengers. Under revised estimates, the projection is now to rake in Rs 44,375 crore during 2021-22. But in the financial year 2022-23, the Indian Railways aims to collect Rs 58,500 crore as passenger revenue. This is Rs 2,500 crore lesser than the estimates of Budget 2021-22.
In Budget 2021-22, the railway expected to rake in Rs 3,746.02 crore by ferrying suburban passengers. This comprises largely of local passengers such as those in the Mumbai suburban railway network. Revenue expectations from this segment have been lowered to Rs 2,623.20 crore in Budget 2022-23 without expecting lesser passengers.
The Railway also expected to earn Rs 57,253.98 crore from ferrying non-suburban (long distance) passengers in Budget 2021-22. This has been tempered to Rs 55,876.80 crore in Budget 2022-23, once again without aiming for any lesser passengers.
“In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, this revenue estimate is only a projection which will be reviewed later. So it cannot be treated as final,” Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Gaurav Krishna Bansal told Business Standard.
The lowered expectations are due to reverting to pre-Covid prices for train services by removal of the ‘special’ tag.
In November, the Railway Board directed Zonal Railways to drop the ‘special’ tag for mail and express trains and to revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect. It was expected that around 1,700 trains were restored with lower prices. This had brought down fares by roughly 15 to 30 per cent on routes where this tag was implemented.
The Railways was facing criticism for higher fares that were being charged during the pandemic. Officials had justified them as a measure to prevent unnecessary travel during the pandemic months.
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