Extending concessions to Senior Citizens 'weighs heavily' on Indian Railways: Ashwini Vaishnaw

As per the railway minister, the Indian Railways already covers half of the average cost of all the passengers, including the senior citizens and granting concessions weighs heavily on it, reports PTI.

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The Indian Railways informed the parliament that the reinstatement of the concession facility for all categories was not possible, as providing concessions to passengers "weighs heavily" on the national transporter. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha that due to lower fare structures for passenger services, Indian Railways already covers more than 50% of the average cost of travel for all customers, including senior persons. He also informed that the number of senior citizen passengers travelled in reserved classes during 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 are 6.18 crore, 1.90 crore, and 5.55 crore, respectively. The minister attributed the decrease in travelling of a number of senior citizen passengers during 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to the pandemic.

"Apart from this, due to COVID-19, passenger earnings for the last two years is less in comparison to 2019-20. These have a long-term impact on the financial health of the railways. The cost of granting concessions weighs heavily on the railways; hence extending the scope of concessions to all categories of passengers, including senior citizens, is not desirable.

"In spite of these challenges, Indian Railways has continued concession in fare to four categories of persons with disabilities, 11 categories of patients and students," the minister said.

"In 2019-20, 22.62 lakh senior citizen passengers had opted to give up concession scheme in passenger fare and gave up concessions for the sustained development of Railways with better facilities," he said.

He also said that the railways had forgone Rs 4,794 crore as revenue foregone due to concessions in passenger fare to senior citizen passengers during 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 for both reserved and unreserved categories.

With inputs from PTI