Team News Riveting
New Delhi, August 16
Even as the services remained off track due to pandemic and lockdown, Indian Railways had refunded to the passengers more than what it earned during the period.
According to railway officials, it had refunded Rs 2,628 crore as of now to passengers for cancellation of tickets against the earning of Rs 2,368 crore on ticket bookings since April this year.
The state-run transporter had a deficit of Rs 260 crore following cancellation of tickets. This is first time that Indian Railways had to experience such a trend in the books.
A total of 323.05 lakh passengers booked the tickets between April 1 and August 11, 2020 as against 2,840.51 lakh booked during the corresponding period last year.
The Railways had refunded Rs 3,660.08 crore during the period of April 1 to August 11 last year as against the earning of Rs 17,309.1 crore. The services were normal during the period.
Besides 230 special trains, the Railways are operating limited local service in Mumbai. It had also operated Shramik Specials to help migrant workers return home. But the limited services failed to compensate the loss that officials calculated to surge to Rs 40,000 in the current fiscal.
The national transporter however registered a growth in freight loading by surpassing its last year’s figures for August by about 7 per cent. With no passenger trains on track, the movement and speed of goods trains increased.
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