India’s very first private train has reported a profit of approximately ₹70 lakhs till October of this year. Run privately by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, the Tejas Express runs between Lucknow and Delhi. According to reports, the train has benched in revenue worth ₹3.70 crores by selling tickets and declared a profit of ₹70 lakhs. This is good news for the country as India is moving towards privatising part of their railway services. For the longest time, they have solely been under the government.
Railway’s First Private Train Makes A Profit
The Tejas Express run by the IRCTC is part of a bid to develop 50 world-class railway stations in the country. These stations will allow private operators to run close to 150 trains in these corridors. The train which started functioning October 5th has been running with an average occupancy of 80-85%. This is a considerable amount for the very first private train in the country.
The train runs six times a week and in the period of October 5 – October 28, the IRCTC has spent around ₹3 crores in the functioning of the train. The train starts its journey from Lucknow at 6:10 am before reaching its destination of Delhi at 12:25 pm. But it is not all hunky-dory for the Tejas Express either. Ever since it started running, it has gotten caught up in delays. Which is why the IRCTC has announced a scheme that passengers will be refunded a certain amount of money depending on how many hours it gets delayed by. In case of a delay of an hour, passengers will be recompensated with ₹100. And if it goes over 2 hours then, they will get a sum of ₹250.
Also Read: Tejas Express All-Set To Be The First Privately Run Train Between Delhi-Lucknow
Recently, IRCTC had to pay approximately ₹1.62 lakhs to its passengers when the train was delayed by 3 hours. However, what is unique about the private train service is that passengers get a better experience on it. This includes combination meals as well as free insurance of up to ₹25 lakhs.
This makes us wonder how long it will be before the private trains take over entirely. It is definitely a thing to think about.