Indian Railways has registered record revenue of ₹2.40 lakh crore for the financial year 2022-23, the Ministry of Railways declared while announcing the annual performance numbers. For 2022-23, gross revenue stood at ₹2.39 lakh crore compared to ₹1.91 lakh crore in 2021-22.
“This is nearly ₹49,000 crore more than the previous year, reflecting 25% growth. During this financial year 2022-23, freight revenue too leapfrogged to ₹1.62 lakh crore, a growth of nearly 15% on previous year,” the Ministry said on Monday.
Railways’ passenger revenues registered an all-time high growth of 61% to reach ₹63,300 crore. After three years, Railways was able to fully meet the pension expenditures, it said. “Buoyancy in revenues and tight expenditure management have helped in achieving an Operating Ratio of 98.14%, well within the RE [revised estimate] target. After meeting all revenue expenditure, Railways generated ₹3,200 crore for capital investment from its internal resources,” the Ministry further said.
Operating Ratio is an indication of how much the Railways spends to earn one rupee. It is a function of total working expenditure to total traffic earnings. A lower operating ratio indicates robust financial health. The operating ratio of Railways had touched 107.39%, the highest ever, in 2021-22.
In terms of traffic revenue, the Indian Railways earned ₹63,300 crore as passenger revenue in 2022-23 compared to ₹39,214 crore in 2021-22, an increase of 61%.
In terms of capital expenditure, capital invested was ₹1,09,004 crore during 2022-23 as against ₹81,664 crore in 2021-22. Under Railway Safety fund, ₹30,001 crore was spent during the last financial year compared to ₹11,105 crore during 2021-22. Also, ₹10,239 crore was invested from funds raised through Sovereign Green Bonds for first time in 2022-23.
