On March 22nd, PM Modi announced a 21-day nation-wide lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the global scale. In compliance, Indian Railways declared a suspension on passenger services while their freight services remained operational at 60% capacity. With the extension of this lock-down, to 3rd of May, Indian Railways look at an even sharper decline in freight traffic along with next to no passenger footfalls.
Indian Railways is reported to have a total loss of ₹12,500 Crores, ₹6,500 Crores in passenger ticket revenue and ₹6000 Crores in revenue from plying freight. This shocking news comes after just weeks ago, for March, Western Railways reported losses of ₹178 Crores. IRCTC earns nearly ₹53,000 Crores annually. Their daily earnings are clocked at around ₹145-150 Crores, ferrying passengers all over India while Freight plying nets them ₹340-345 Crores per day.
Despite the lock-down, the state-run railway service is still functional with locomotive pilots, guards, station masters, control rooms and signalling sections active, to ensure supply of essential items like milk, sugar, salt, food grain, vegetables and fruits. The Railways has kept its freight corridors fully functional, at the moment, for essential commodities and vital goods for energy and infrastructure despite challenges due to the COVID-19 lock-down, said a railway official. However, with the freight services now operational at 60% capacity, the revenue losses add up to about ₹138 Crores per day or ₹5,934 Crores in 43 days.
This is, in fact, the longest stretch in which the railways have suspended their passenger services since the 54-days strike of 1974. Even after assuming that lock-down will be lifted on 3rd of May, it would take the Railways much longer to start ferrying passengers at pre-lockdown levels, adding to the woes of India’s biggest employer. For now, Railway officials seem disconcerted, thinking of the ways to go about imposing safety guidelines for passengers when operations resume. On top of this, Railway employees have been facing difficulties, loading and unloading goods at various terminals. However, it is being effectively resolved with the Ministry of Home Affairs as state governments keep in touch to sort out any such operational issues.