Journalism of Courage
The revenue of the Ambala Railway division, one of the five divisions under the Northern Railway zone, has gone up by 11.29 per cent (Rs 2,508.14 crore) in the financial year 2022-23 up to December 2022. It is higher than the corresponding period in the previous fiscal of 2021-22 when it clocked a revenue of Rs 2,253.61 crore.
The Ambala Railway division with its headquarters in Haryana serves five states – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The revenue comes in terms of goods revenue (Rs 1,824.63 crore), passenger revenue (Rs 557.50 crore), parcel, ticket checking and platform ticket revenue (Rs 76.96 crore) and sundry revenue (Rs 49.06 crore), which consists of non-fare revenue through parking, catering and retiring room etc.
Though the overall revenue was increased, the railway officials observed that there has been a 2.75 per cent decline in goods revenue during FY 2022-23 up to December compared to the previous financial year. “We found that a decrease in the loading of PFG by 134 rakes, clinker by 11 rakes, De-oiled cake by 5 rakes and fly ash along with lime ash by 18 rakes were reasons behind the decrease in the goods revenue,” said an officer.
According to Ambala Divisional Railway Manager Mandeep Singh Bhatia, efforts are being made to generate more revenue while providing maximum convenience to passengers. “We do not want to make any compromise on the safety of the passengers. We calculate the annual revenue from the months of April to April. There is yet another four-month period to complete the FY-2022-23,” Bhatia said.
Meanwhile, at least 15 railway stations under the Ambala Railway division have been selected for the modernisation under the ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme’. The selected stations include Kalka railway station, Mohali station, Anandpur Sahib station, Patiala station, Dhuri station, Jagadhri station, Ambala City railway station, among others.
