15 October 2022 07:53 am Views - 2358
The Transport Ministry has initiated a discussion on the need to restructure the Department of Railways to make it a commercially viable venture, a Minister said .
The Department sustains an operational loss of Rs. 10 billion annually. Minister Bandula Gunawardane told Daily Mirror that its organisational structure as a government department blurs commercial viability.“in 2021, the Department earned only Rs.2.6 billion. However, as much as
Rs. 2.3 billion had been spent on overtime payments alone. For the payment of salaries, Rs. 7 billion had been spent.
It is run at a huge operational loss. We should figure out a proper structure to improve commercial viability. If it is run as a statutory board, we can make some decisions,” he said. Currently, there are 8,000 vacancies in the Department with 1,000 of them being in the essential categories such as railway guards, engine drivers and station masters.
The Minister said expansion of weekend special train services had been hampered due to lack of railway guards.