Over 100% occupancy on Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor: WR clarifies RTI reply on Rs 30 crore losses

A day after an RTI reply stated how the Mumbai-Ahmedabad train route had incurred losses of nearly Rs 30 crore with 40% of seats remaining empty, the Western Railway authorities on Wednesday clarified that there is over 100% passenger occupancy on Mumbai–Ahmedabad sector.

Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway in a press release said that during these 3 months, the total earnings on this sector was Rs 233 crore. “There are 9 direct trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and back. Except for the Ahmedabad Duronto Express, the other trains have several stops.

“The total available berths of these 9 trains from July 1, 2017 to September 30, 2017 works out to 8,03,150 against which actual passengers booked were  8,30,978. Thus the total occupancy was 103%," said Bhakar.

He clarified that the reply given in the RTI query is against the specific question of number of passengers from only Mumbai Central to Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad to Mumbai Central stations. The information does not include information about enroute traffic.

The Mumbai – Ahmedabad sector is one of the busiest routes of Indian Railways caterered by 9 direct trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and around 25 trains going to onward destinations via Ahmedabad. This sector also serves important enroute stations and industrial towns such as Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi, Valsad etc.