Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that the financial health of Indian Railways has seen significant improvement over the last ten years due to strong and consistent policy measures. Replying during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Vaishnaw informed that the Railways is currently spending around two lakh seventy-four thousand crore rupees annually on its overall operations, including employees’ pensions. He said that expenditure on energy requirements, which earlier stood at over thirty-seven thousand crore rupees, has now been reduced to around thirty-two thousand crore rupees.
The Minister added that despite the reduction in energy costs, railway traffic has increased by four hundred million tonnes over the last four years. He attributed this achievement to the visionary steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including large-scale electrification of the Railways. Speaking on employment generation, Mr Vaishnaw said that the Railways provided five lakh four thousand job opportunities between 2014 and 2024. He further informed that during the third term of the present government, around one lakh fifty thousand people have already been provided employment in the Railways. The Minister said that the recruitment process for eighteen thousand Loco Pilots has been completed, and the process is currently underway to provide one lakh fifty thousand more jobs in various categories in the Railways.
