New Delhi: The Railways has suffered a loss of over Rs.30,000 crore in terms of traffic revenue in 2020-21 due to the Covud-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown in the country. The information was presented in Rajya Sabha on Friday by Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
According to the statistics presented by him in a written reply, while total traffic revenue earned by the Railways in 2019-20 was Rs.1,74,661 crore which declined to Rs. 1,40,516 in 2020-21 resulting in a loss of Rs. 34,145 crore. As for the steps taken by the Union Government to address the issue, the Rail Minister said the Government has provided a special loan to meet Covid related resource gap in 2020-21.
"In 2021-22, the revenue trends of Railways have improved perceptively. To end of December 2021, Railways’ total traffic revenue has increased by 46% over corresponding period of 2020-21 compared to a decrease of 28.4% to end of December 2020 over corresponding period of 2019-20," he added.
Vaishnaw said that "in view the rapid progress of vaccination and weakening of the pandemic, Railways have fixed an optimistic total traffic revenue target of ` 2,39,500 cr. in BE 2022-23 based on highest ever freight loading target of 1475 MT and improvement in originating passenger to normal level."
