New Delhi: Railways will be "highly profitable" in coming 5-6 years with its ongoing transformative initiatives, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.
The minister exuded confidence that the Railways will have a "superb" business proposition in coming years.
"With Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)'s vision, the transformation that is taking place and those that are expected to be in place...in the coming 5-6 years down the line, railways will be highly profitable," Vaishnaw said while speaking at the 'Times Now Summit 2021'.
The railways ecosystem will expand and customer experience will also transform, he said.
On the financial position of Indian Railways, the minister said its balance sheet depended largely on the cargo it handles.
"The cargo that we handle has to totally transform. We must focus on getting the retail cargo that is for the small industries, for the small businesses, for the tribal living in Ranchi who wants to send, say 'Ragi', to somebody sitting in Delhi," he said.
Addressing that segment of the cargo will push up railways' economics significantly, he added.
"And, I'm sure that with the inventions, with the innovations that we are doing, in fact today, from here I'll be going to the New Delhi railway station where the box that we have developed for such medium, small-scale industries, small businesses...that box we will see today and hopefully, will soon deploy that," he said.
In the past seven years, railways has seen marked improvement in benchmarks, such as punctuality, cleanliness, and offering good services to passengers.