Making a U-turn from what it had said in an RTI reply, the Western Railway on Wednesday ‘clarified’ that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route is a profitable sector with more than 100% occupancy even during off-season.
In an RTI reply, the Western Railway had earlier claimed that the selected Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector for the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious bullet train project was facing Rs 29.91 crore loss as more than 40% of the seats in this route have been going vacant in the last three months.
The Western Railways reply to the query of Mumbai-based activist Anil Galgali confirmed that the route was not a profitable venture.
Now, chief public relations officer of the WR Ravinder Bhakar said there are nine direct trains and 25 other trains going via Ahmedabad and the total earnings on this sector during that period was Rs. 233 crore, against the losses of nearly Rs. 30 crore as per the RTI replies, which pertained to number of passengers travelling between Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad, reports IANS.
"The information does not include information about en route traffic, passengers from originating station to en route stations, intermediate stations to intermediate and to destination stations between Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad, thereby showing lesser occupancy," Bhakar told the news agency.
He added that despite the July-September period being a lean season, the occupancy on the sector remained 100% plus on all the 34 trains.
Of the nine direct trains, there were 803,150 berths of which actual bookings were 830,978, or 103 per cent occupancy in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, and in return direction, the position remained the same, the report added.
Last year, a comprehensive study by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad had said that the proposed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have to ferry 88,000-118,000 passengers per day, or undertake 100 trips daily, for the Railways to keep it financially viable. A goal that is almost impossible to achive.
The report, titled, “Dedicated High Speed Railway (HSR) Networks in India: Issues in Development,” states that if the Railways set the ticket price at Rs 1500 for 300 km drive per person fifteen years after the operation, it will have to ferry between 88,000 and 110,000 passengers every day to ensure that it repays the loans with interest on time.
In September this year, Japan gave India a loan worth Rs. 88,000 crore at 0.1 per cent interest, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe, laid the foundation stone for the proposed Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Network.
Japan’s loan at 0.1% interest rate for the bullet train is not extraordinary, viewed in light of Japan’s low 0.05% interest rates and domestic economic conditions.
Narendra Modi had termed the interest rate and terms of loan “unbelievable”. But Japan’s loan at 0.1% interest rate for the bullet train is not extraordinary, viewed in light of Japan’s low 0.05% interest rates and domestic economic conditions, reported Mint.
