Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. One hand the Modi government has claimed to have changed the condition of the entire Indian Railways and have taken the credit of running many hi-fi trains like Vande Bharat, Namo Bharat, Gatimaan, Tejas, Mahamana, but on the other hand the Railway Ministry has released the data that tell some other story. Railway ministry has said that instead of air conditioned coaches in the country, railway passengers are preferring to travel in general coaches or sleepers. Out of the total 390.2 crore railway passengers in the country between April 2023 and October 2023 this year, 95.3 percent traveled in general and sleeper classes, while only 4.7 percent passengers traveled in AC class coaches. In terms of figures, out of 390.2 crore passengers, 372 crore traveled in non-AC coaches while the remaining 18.2 crore traveled in AC coaches. This figure has come at a time when it is being said that Railways is gradually removing the general and sleeper class coaches from the rakes and adding AC class coaches in their place in the trains. Among these AC classes, maximum number of coaches are of third class and second class coaches come second. These railway figures have exposed the Modi government, which has always strived to make rail travel comfortable.

90.2 crore passengers travelled in 7 months

Indian Railways said that compared to the same period last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of general and sleeper class passengers between April and October this year and a total of 390.2 crore passengers travelled in different railway classes in these seven months. This is 41.1 crore more passengers as compared to 349.1 crore passengers during the same period in 2022. This is 11.7 percent more than the total number during the last 7 months of last year. A Central Railway official said that Indian Railways now runs 562 more trains every day as compared to pre-Covid days. During the Covid period, 10,186 trains used to run every day, but now it has increased to 10,748.

More coaches are of non-AC classes

According to experts on railway matters, since the fares of AC coaches are high, railway passengers prefer to travel in non-AC coaches. Whereas the fares of AC trains are slightly less than air fares, hence people have started spending a little extra and turning towards air travel. Apart from this, one reason is that the number of AC coaches in Indian trains is less and the number of general coaches has always been more. Therefore, due to less number of AC coaches, the number of seats here also reduces.