Railways suffers Rs 2,220 cr loss due to Punjab farmers' stir

The stoppage of train services by the Indian Railways due to the farmers' agitation in Punjab led to a loss of Rs 2,220 crore in earnings to the national carrier in the past few weeks.

New Delhi: The Indian Railways has lost Rs 2,220 crore of its earnings due to the farmers' agitation in Punjab against the recently-enacted farm laws by the Central Government.

Farmers in Punjab have been protesting against the three agriculture laws due to which the Railways had to cancel or divert a total of 2,352 passenger trains.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Railways, an average loss of 30 rakes per day used to occur due to the inward traffic affected by farmers agitation. With regard to the outward traffic, the Railways faced a loss of 40 rakes per day.

A total of 3,850 freight trains could not be loaded due to the blockades at railway tracks.

Northern Railways had to lose Rs 14.85 crore on a per-day average for its originating earnings. The revenue loss in freight operations for 55 days of farmers' protest was of Rs 825 crore. While in passenger operations, Railways lost Rs 67 crore due to cancellation of trains.

Read:Protesting farm unions of Punjab reach Delhi

In total, the northern zone of the Railways faced a revenue loss of Rs 891 crore.

A total number of 230 loaded rakes of coal, fertiliser, cement, and other commodities were held outside the state by the agitators. While 33 rakes and 96 locos are still stuck in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Chief Minister had written a letter to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal seeking his personal intervention for immediate restoration of the freight operations.

However, Indian Railways has refused to start its freight operations unless passenger trains are allowed by the agitators. The farmer organisations although, had only allowed the operations of freight trains.

Read:Train services in Punjab to start when tracks are cleared: Railways