40 percent seats on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route vacant, loss of Rs 29.91 crores in 3 months

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

By Philip Varghese


Activist Anil Galgali has expressed that the maximum load of passengers on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route is for sleeper class seats and it can be seen from the RTI that the ‘upper class’ seats are going vacant and the occupancy ratio is very poor

More than a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the first bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has found that in past three months, 40 per cent of the seats on the Mumbai to Ahmedabad route are empty and 44 per cent of the seats on the Ahmedabad to Mumbai route are also empty.

It will be recalled that PM Modi on September 14, announced that India’ first bullet train would be launched in 2022, coinciding with 75 years of independence, and dubbed it as a definite step towards ‘New India’.

Advancing the scheduled launch from March 2023, the Modi Government will make the high-speed train operational between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in August 2022. The project will be funded by Japan.

However, activist Anil Galgali has claimed that the Modi Government, which is over enthusiastic to spend more than Rs. 1 lakh crores for running the bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, seems to have not done it's homework properly.

According to an information obtained on the basis of response by the Railway to a RTI query filed by Galgali, the railways have an accumulated loss of Rs 29.91 crores for the past three months as 40 per cent of the seats on the Mumbai to Ahmedabad route were empty and 44 per cent seats on the Ahmedabad to Mumbai route was also found empty.

Galgali had sought various information from the Western Railway (WR) about the seat occupancy on all the trains running between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to and fro for the past three months. The Chief Commercial Manager of the Western Railway (WR), Manjeet Singh, provided the information to Galgali pertaining to period from July 1, 2017, to September 30, 2017.

As per the information received through RTI on the 32 Mail and Express trains running from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, only 4,41,795 seats got booked out of the 7,35,630 seats on all the trains, thus, generating a revenue of Rs 30,16,24,623 out of the total expected revenue of Rs 44,29,08,220. “This means it has incurred a loss to the tune of Rs 14,12,83,597 in just three months. On the Ahmedabad to Mumbai route, a total of 31 Mail / Express trains are running on which 3,98,002 passengers traveled on the route on which the total capacity was 7,06,446 seats. This route accumulated a loss of Rs 15,78,54,489 as it could generate a revenue of only Rs 26,74,56,982 as against the expected capacity of Rs 42,53,11,471,” Galgali said.

The trains running on the route such as Duranto, Shatabadi, Gujarat Mail, Bhavnagar, Saurashtra, Vivek, Bhuj, Lokshakti are included in the data provided. The Ahmedabad Division Engineer informed in the reply that there is no fresh proposal for any new train on this route with them. The 12009 Shatabdi is the most famous and favourite train for Chair Car service. This train enroute to Ahmedabad had the capacity for 72,696 seats out of which it managed to sell only 36,117 seats. Of the total expected revenue of Rs 7,20,82,948 it could garner, only Rs 4,11,23,086. The Executive Chair Car consisted of 8216 seats, whereas only 3468 could be sold garnering a revenue of just Rs 64,14,345 out of the total expected capacity of Rs 1,63,57,898. The Shatabdi's 2010 Ahmedabad-Mumbai route story is no different. Out of the total 67,392 seats, only 22,982 seats got sold and revenue received was Rs 2,51,41,322 against expectation of 6,39,08,988.