New Delhi (Metro Rail News): An RTI reply has revealed that the Indian Railways has cancelled more than 1.78 crore tickets since March this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and refunded an amount of ₹2,727 crore. A total of 1,78,70,644 tickets have been cancelled so far.
As per the official data, last year, the Railways had refunded ₹3,660.08 crore for the April 1-August 11 period but it had also earned ₹17,309.1 crore in the same period of time.
This is the first time when the refunds were more than the amount earned by the Railways from sale of tickets.
The first three months of this financial year, when the Railways had to suspend all its regular passenger services, the national transporter’s revenue was in the negative — ₹531.12 crore in April, -₹145.24 crore in May and -₹390.6 in June.
In the last fiscal, it had earned ₹4,345 crore in April, ₹4,463 crore in May and₹4,589 crore in June. As of now, the Railways has cancelled all regular passenger services indefinitely. However, the railways now hopes for some recovery as the passengers have started travelling in good numbers through special trains.