Tag: Indian Railways

Piyush Goyal: Railways will never be privatised | India Business News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Union minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that the Indian Railways will never be privatised and will always remain with government of India.
Replying to a discussion in Lok Sabha, the railway minister, however, stressed on the need to encourage private investment for more efficient functioning.
“The country can progress towards high growth and create more employment opportunities only when the public and private sectors work together,” Goyal said.
The statement comes amidst protests from lakhs of bank employees across states over privatisation of two public sector banks. State-run banks are currently under a two-day strike.
The minister further asserted that the sector has been focusing enormously on passenger safety and no deaths have been reported due to any rail accidents in the past 2 years.
“We are focusing on passenger safety. I am happy to say that there has been no passenger death in past two years. The last death due to train accident happened in March 2019,” he said.
Under the Modi government, investment in railways has been hiked to Rs 2.15 lakh crore in 2021-22 fiscal, from Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2019-20 fiscal.
Last week, railway board chairman Suneet Sharma had informed that as of March 12 railways freight loading for the financial year 2020-21 has surpassed the level achieved in the last fiscal.
“This gives us a great boost and proves how the railways has continued to be the driving force of the economy. We have loaded 1145.68 MT of goods in 2020-21 as compared to 1145.61 MT last year. This is despite the coronavirus crisis which had pushed us into a deficit of 70 MT from April to July,” Sharma had told news agency PTI.

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Freight loading for FY 2020-21 surpassed level achieved last fiscal: Railway Board chairman

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The Railways on Friday said that as of March 12 its freight loading for the financial year 2020-21 has surpassed the level achieved in the last fiscal.

It is a huge achievement given the coronavirus pandemic had disrupted rail movement, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said.

He said that in 2020-21, the railways loaded 1145.68 MT of goods as compared to 1145.61 MT last year.

“This gives us a great boost and proves how the railways has continued to be the driving force of the economy. We have loaded 1145.68 MT of goods in 2020-21 as compared to 1145.61 MT last year. This is despite the coronavirus crisis which had pushed us into a deficit of 70 MT from April to July,” Sharma said.

He credited the achievement to the rail employees and said initiatives taken by them at the zonal and divisional levels helped the national transporter to increase its freight basket.

The Railway Board chairman further said on a month-to-month basis, up to March 11, Indian Railways’ loading was 43.43 million tonnes, which is 10 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year (39.33 million tonnes).

On a day-to-day basis, on March 11, the freight loading of Indian Railways was 4.07 million tonnes, which is 34 per cent higher than last year’s loading for the same date (3.03 million tonnes).

The average speed of freight trains in the month of March 2021 till now was 45.49 kmph which is almost double compared to last year for the same period (23.29 kmph).

“It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make rail freight movement very attractive. The strong emergence of business development units in zones and divisions, constant dialogue with the industry and logistics service providers, faster speed are adding to the robust growth of freight business for the Railways.

“It may be noted that COVID-19 has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all-round efficiencies and performances,” Sharma said.

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