As the Narendra Modi government proceeds with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, an RTI query has revealed that over 40% of seats on all the trains on this sector go vacant, causing huge losses to Western Railway.
According to Right to Information replies received by Mumbai activist Anil Galgali, just in the past one quarter, the Western Railway’s losses on this sector stood at nearly ₹30 crore, or around ₹10 crore per month.
“The Indian government is over-enthusiastic and plans to spend more than ₹1 lakh crore on the bullet train project, but it has not done its homework properly,” Mr. Galgali said, adding that it raises serious question marks on the viability of the project, whenever it comes up.
Replying to Mr. Galgali’s query on seats occupancy on all the trains between the two cities, the WR revealed that in the past three months, 40% of seats went vacant on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector and 44% on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route.
WR’s Chief Commercial Manager Manjeet Singh said that between July 1 and September 30, there were 32 mail/express trains were serving this sector with a total seating capacity of 7,35,630 seats. Of these, only 4,41,795 seats were booked during that period generating a revenue of ₹30,16,24,623 against the total estimated expected income of ₹44,29,08,220.
Similarly, on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route served by a total of 31 mail/express trains with a seating capacity of 7,06,446, only 3,98,002 seats were booked, resulting in a revenue of ₹26,74,56,982 against the estimated expected income of ₹42,53,11,471, spelling a massive loss of ₹15,78,54,489.
