Rlys on the move, eyes to ferry 7.4 bn passengers, 1,650 mt freight in FY25

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said phased rollout plan of Kavach would be released soon

The Ministry of Railways estimates passenger volumes on Indian Railways to be around 7.4 billion in 2024-25, and expects to carry 1,650 million tonnes (mt), fetching a total operational revenue of Rs 2.79 trillion, Budget documents show.

The ministry is eyeing Rs 1.8 trillion from its freight operations in FY25, which is 6.5 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates, but the same as the Budget estimates in the previous year. Experts have opined in the past that railways missing its freight targets set at the beginning of the year does not bode well for its Mission 3000, under which it aims to carry 3000 mt of goods by 2030.

A bulk of this revenue will come from transportation of coal at approximately Rs 91,000 crore.

For passengers, the ministry expects demand to be around 7.4 billion in the year, which is 9.1 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates of 2023-24. Passenger services on suburban lines are expected to carry 4.1 billion passengers, which is 6.4 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates.

Most of the increased demand would come from second class (general) passengers in mail and express trains, with an estimated passenger count for FY25 at 1.8 billion being 18 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates of the previous year. 

Notably, the second class long-distance travel demand is also much higher than the Budget Estimates of FY24, even though the ministry had estimated total passenger demand to be higher in FY24 BE (7.5 billion), indicating a rethink on the national transporter’s anticipation of this segment.

In the runup to the Lok Sabha elections, a major criticism of the government from Opposition parties was its lack of focus towards mass transit services and focus on premium services such as Vande Bharat.  Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, in response, recently announced plans to manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches and 50 Amrit Bharat trains in the coming fiscal.

AC-3 Tier, which is the highest revenue earning class for railways, is expected to fetch Rs 26,000 crore in FY25.

Meanwhile, Vaishnaw in a post-Budget interaction on Wednesday, said the government was committed to ensuring a speedy rollout of the Kavach programme. For this, it will soon release a phased rollout plan for the indigenous anti-collision system.

“Nations with rail networks half the size of India have taken 20 years to install Kavach-like systems in the past,” he said.

The minister said extra budgetary provisions had been reduced in this Budget on account of the fact that budgetary support from the government had increased.