New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways headed by senior parliamentarian and Trinamool Congress' Sudip Bandyopadhyay has slammed the government for the lack of seriousness on the part of ministry towards low occupancy in luxury trains.
However, according to the findings of the report, luxury tourist trains, which are premier services being offered by Railways, is proving to be a 'white elephant' for the Railways Ministry as running cost is more than the revenue generated from all such trains.
The panel has asked the ministry to properly examine and spell out reasons for running such trains with as low as 30 per cent occupancy.
"The total revenue earned by all five luxury tourist trains from 2012-13 to 2016-17 has been Rs 497 crore with an average of Rs 99 crore per year with the Railways share amounting to Rs 259 crore, which is 52 per cent of the total revenue," said the report of panel on tourism promotion and pilgrimage circuit.
Expressing its concern over poor revenue generation, the panel said, "Revenue of Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Deccan Odyssey and Golden Chariot have never crossed the mark of Rs 15 crore per year in the last five years."
"Moreover, in case of Deccan Odyssey, total haulage charges for the years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 have been Rs 7.71 crore, Rs 10.25 crore and Rs 13.15 crore respectively, which are higher than the total revenue earned by this train which is Rs 5.25 crore, Rs 5.26 crore and Rs 9.51 crore for the corresponding years," the panel said in its report.
The panel also slammed ministry for providing complimentary travel when these luxury trains have hardly generated the revenue to meet their own working expenses. The Railway Board/ IRCTC/ State Tourism Development Corporations allowed 30, 97, 53 and 71 passengers for complimentary travel in the years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 respectively, the report said.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways headed by senior parliamentarian and Trinamool Congress' Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Thursday was lauded by the Lok Sabha for presenting its report on Tourism Promotion and Pilgrimage Circuit with "new initiatives and innovation".
For the first time, the report of the 31-member parliamentary panel has colourful photographs depicting important trains run by Indian Railways connecting the key pilgrimage circuits. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also complimented the committee and said it is worth emulating.