COVID-19 Impact : Railway Freezes New Posts to Cut Spending After Earnings Fell By 58%

New Delhi : The Indian Railways is preparing to cut its expenses in view of the huge loss in earnings this year due to the Coronavirus crisis. This includes measures like prohibiting creation of new posts, making employees more efficient, organizing programs through digital platforms.

In a letter written on 19 June, the Railway Financial Commissioner told the general managers of all the zones that the railway traffic earnings declined by 58 percent at the end of May, compared to the same period last year. The letter said that new avenues have to be found to control expenses and increase earnings.

According to the letter, the then Commissioner in 2017 and the Railway Board in 2018 had also announced such steps. The commissioner’s letter said that as you know the government has ordered that the railways will have to bear their own revenue expenses including pension. This year’s targeted earnings are likely to be adversely affected by COVID-19.

The commissioner has suggested all zones of railways to cut down on employee expenses and make employees efficient in many tasks, review contracts, reduce power consumption and cut spending in administrative and other areas. Apart from this, it has also been suggested to ban the creation of new posts.

The letter said that the posts created during the last two years should be reviewed and if there are no appointments on them, recruitment can be stopped by reviewing them. In addition, employees can be made competent in workshops.