Parliament Question: Revenue generation by Indian Railways

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1702 ANSWERED ON 13.02.2026 REVENUE GENERATION BY INDIAN RAILWAYS 1702 SHRI ABDUL WAHAB:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) the total income generated by Indian Railways during the last five years, year-wise;

(b) the break-up of income from major segments such as passenger ticketing, freight/cargo, parcel services, advertising, catering, station development and other non-fare revenue sources;

(c) the total expenditure incurred by Indian Railways during this period, segment-wise;

(d) the details of losses incurred in various sectors or services, including suburban, passenger and other loss-making routes or segments, year-wise; and

(e) the steps taken or proposed to improve revenue generation and reduce losses across different operational segments? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (c) The year-wise break-up of total income generated and total expenditure incurred by Indian Railways during the last five financial years (FYs) is as under: (₹ in crore) FY Income Expenditure 2020-21 (Covid Year) 1,40,784 1,38,236 2021-22 (Covid Year) 1,91,367 2,06,392 2022-23 2,40,177 2,37,660 2023-24 2,56,093 2,52,834 2024-25 2,65,678 2,63,018 Segment-wise earning details are available in Annual Statistical Statement of Indian Railways available on website (https://www.indianrailways.gov.in).

(d) Indian Railways strives to provide affordable services to all strata of the society and gave subsidy of ₹60,466 crore on passenger tickets in 2023-24. This amounts to concession of 45% on anaverage, to every person, travelling on Railways. In other words, if the cost of providing service is ₹100, then the price of ticket is ₹55 only. This subsidy is continuing for all passengers. Further, concessions beyond this subsidy amount are continuing for many categories like 4 categories of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjans), 11 categories of patients and 8 categories of students.

The segment-wise details are available in Year Book of Indian Railways available on website (https://www.indianrailways.gov.in).

(e) With a view to offer better services to enhance Passenger earnings, various initiatives has been introduced such as augmentation of on-board capacity, introduction of new trains like Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, Namo Bharat rapid rail etc. with better amenities and facilities. Further, following steps have been undertaken to attract more freight traffic and improve revenue

generation:

(i) Encouraging development of modern rail freight terminals under Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy and augmenting/ upgrading the infrastructure at railway owned goods sheds. So far, 124 GCTs have already been commissioned with an estimated traffic capacity of 198 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). In addition, for improvement of customer amenities at goods and parcel terminals all across the country, an amount of ₹14,500 crore has been allocated for the financial year 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.

(ii) Wagon Investment Schemes: Indian Railway has already implemented various schemes for private sector to invest in wagons including the commodity focused specialized wagons such as wagons for cement, oil, steel, fly-ash etc. So far, around 243 rakes of special purpose wagons and 383 rakes of general-purpose wagons are operational, which are expected to improve modal share in commodities like bulk cement, fly-ash, steel products, iron ores and coal etc. Besides, there is a separate scheme for transportation of automobiles under which around 51 rakes owned by industry are operational.

(iii) Joint Parcel Product-Rapid Cargo Service (JPP-RCS) scheme: This scheme offers tailor– made logistics to meet specific needs of the customer and provide door-to-door parcel services. Under the scheme, provision has been made for online booking of parcel space in these services through Aggregators (in addition to India Post) on ‘Virtual Aggregation Platform (VAP).

(iv) Ensuring increased availability of rakes/wagons against demand.

(v) Increasing the loadability for carrying additional traffic per wagon. Length of freight trains has also been increased to increase throughput per train.

(vi) For increasing network capacity- multitracking on busy sections, ROR, bypass on busy junctions are being taken up.(vii) Use of Information Technology in freight operations to improve monitoring and utilization of assets.

(viii) Induction of higher horsepower locomotives.

(ix) Improvement in maintenance practices of wagons and locomotives resulting in increased availability of loco and rolling stock for traffic use.

(x) Improvement in track and signalling to carry higher volume of traffic. *****