Railways incurs Rs 40-bn loss in 3 years by running Mumbai locals: Govt

Amidst a major push for expansion of the suburban Mumbai rail network in the Union Budget, the government on Wednesday informed Parliament that the national transporter has incurred a loss of more than Rs 40 billion in the last three years in running the Mumbai locals.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Railways Raen Gohain said that since 2014-2017, railways had incurred a loss of Rs 42.8 billion by running the suburban rail network in Mumbai.

"Indian Railway is incurring losses by running local train services in metropolitan areas of Mumbai. In the last three years, while the total earnings were Rs 52 billion, the expenditure was Rs 94.8 billion and the loss was of Rs 42.8 billion," Gohain said.

In Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the expansion of the Mumbai suburban train network, spread over 465km, at a cost of Rs 110 billion, and said the government also planned to allocate an additional Rs 400 billion for the citys rail network.

The suburban railway in Mumbai operates 2,342 local train services and carries more than 7.5 million commuters daily, and this is the first time that the network is being expanded in a big way.

Gohain informed the House that while in 2014-2015, the national transporter lost Rs 14.2 billion, the next year, it lost Rs 14.7 billion and in 2016-2017, the railways incurred a loss of Rs 13.7 billion.