Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday, 01 June 2021.
Even as the last financial year (2020-21) was marred by Covid-19 spread, Nagpur division of Central Railway saw over 18.32 lakh passengers travelling in trains generating revenue of Rs122.30 crore.
Though the number of travellers looks to be high, according to officials, it is one-third of what it used to be during normal times. “Most of the passengers are those who moved out for urgent work and official matters. Students did not travel as education institutes are closed,” they said.
Information received under RTI Act by Abhay Kolarkar states that 18.32 lakh people travelled from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This was despite zero frequency of trains from April-August 2020 when all trains were cancelled due to the Covid-19 scare. The total train frequency as per punctuality analysis monitoring (PAM) during the financial year was 12,782 trains while the number of cancelled trains during the same period were 52,852.
Kolarkar says the number of passengers who booked tickets was far more as data shows that over 9 lakh passengers cancelled tickets. The Central Railway earned over Rs7.89 crore out of cancelled tickets.
Though there was low traffic during the coronavirus period, there seemed to be business as usual for ticket checking staff as the Central Railway earned Rs2.94 crore revenue by way of fine from more than 47,000 ticketless travellers.
The revenue from freight Rs2,704 crore was the only morale booster for the railways. As there were restrictions for entry into the station, revenue from platform earnings was at a low of Rs7.15 lakh during the year.
Even as the last financial year (2020-21) was marred by Covid-19 spread, Nagpur division of Central Railway saw over 18.32 lakh passengers travelling in trains generating revenue of Rs122.30 crore.
Though the number of travellers looks to be high, according to officials, it is one-third of what it used to be during normal times. “Most of the passengers are those who moved out for urgent work and official matters. Students did not travel as education institutes are closed,” they said.
Information received under RTI Act by Abhay Kolarkar states that 18.32 lakh people travelled from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This was despite zero frequency of trains from April-August 2020 when all trains were cancelled due to the Covid-19 scare. The total train frequency as per punctuality analysis monitoring (PAM) during the financial year was 12,782 trains while the number of cancelled trains during the same period were 52,852.
Kolarkar says the number of passengers who booked tickets was far more as data shows that over 9 lakh passengers cancelled tickets. The Central Railway earned over Rs7.89 crore out of cancelled tickets.
Though there was low traffic during the coronavirus period, there seemed to be business as usual for ticket checking staff as the Central Railway earned Rs2.94 crore revenue by way of fine from more than 47,000 ticketless travellers.
The revenue from freight Rs2,704 crore was the only morale booster for the railways. As there were restrictions for entry into the station, revenue from platform earnings was at a low of Rs7.15 lakh during the year.
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