Indian Railways miss earnings target in August, again

03 October 2016

Already reeling under financial stress and decline in passenger as well as freight revenue, the Indian Railways missed its overall earnings target for August 2016 by 15.62%, according to provisional data released by the railways.

The national carrier’s earning was down 3.97% compared with the same period last year. While actual earnings in August 2015 was Rs.12,326.12 crore, the target for August 2016 was Rs.14,026.73 crore. In comparison, the provisional data shows that the transporter managed to earn Rs.11,836.45 crore last month.

The railways have been looking at various ways to increase its fare revenue through introduction of time-tabled freight trains, and trains such as Gatimaan Express, Humsafar, Antodaya, among others. It is also trying to shore up its non-fare revenue through various advertising avenues including vinyl-wrapping of trains and digital display of advertisements.

However, the transporter witnessed a fall of 9.15% in freight earnings and 4.53% in passenger earnings in August 2016 compared with the same month last year. The freight and passenger earnings target for August 2016 stood at Rs.8,677.29 crore and Rs.4,318.94 crore, respectively. The railways reported Rs.7,252.42 crore and Rs.3,872.57 crore as freight and passenger earnings, respectively.

The railway ministry has budgeted for freight traffic to grow to 1.15 million tonne (MT) in the current financial year.

Source – Ministry of Railways/VCCircle