More than 40% seats of the Railways on the Mumbai- Ahmedabad route go vacant

The Modi government which is over enthusiastic to spend more than Rs One Lakh Crores for running Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, seems to have not done it's homework properly. In the past 3 months there has been 40% empty seats on the Mumbai to Ahmedabad route and 44% empty seats on the Ahmedabad to Mumbai route. This information is obtained on the basis of response by the Railway to a RTI query filed by RTI Activist Anil Galgali. The accumulated loss for the past 3 months is Rs 29.91 crores.

RTI Activist Anil Galgali had sought various information from the Western Railway about the seat occupancy on all the trains running between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to and fro for the past three months. The Cheif Commercial Manager of the Western Railway, Shri Manjeet Singh provided the information to Galgali pertaining to period from 1st July 2017 to 30th September 2017 . As per the information, on the 32 Mail / Express trains running from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, out of the 7,35,630 seats on all the trains, only 4,41,795 seats got booked, generating a revenue of Rs 30,16,24,623/- out of the total expected revenue of Rs 44,29,08,220/-, incurring a loss to the tune of Rs 14,12,83,597/- in just 3 months. On the Ahmedabad to Mumbai route a total of 31 Mail / Express trains are running on which 3,98,002 passengers travelled 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/- .

The trains running on the route such as Duranto, Shatabdi, Gujrat Mail, Bhavnagar, Saurashtra, Vivek, Bhuj, Lokshakti are included in the data provided. The Ahmedabad Division Engineer informed Galgali 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 12010 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 in place of total expectations of 6,39,08,988/-. In the case of Executive Chair Car only 1469 seats were booked out of 7505 available seats. The revenue generation was Rs 26,41,083/- instead of 1,45,49,714/-. The position in all the other trains are more or less the same. The maximum demand for seats on this route is for sleeper class seats, for which the Railways is not paying any attention to augment the capacity. 

In a statement, Anil Galgali has expressed that, the maximum load of passengers on the Mumbai Ahmedabad route is for sleeper class seats and the it can be seen that the Upper Class seats are going vacant and the occupancy ratio is very poor. The Railway Ministry and the state government should study the scenario, the Bullet Train option selected by the Central Govt is not a viable option financially as well as from the point of view of the common man.