The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)’s first privately run train – Tejas Express – has made a profit of around Rs 70 lakh in its first month of operations.

The Tejas Express that runs between Delhi and Lucknow began operations on October 5, has earned a revenue of nearly Rs 3.70 crore through sale of tickets and has seen average occupancy of 80-85 per cent, reported The Economic Times.

The train runs for six days a week, excluding Tuesdays. The expenditure incurred by IRCTC for running the train from October 5 to October 28 – a total of 21 days – was around Rs 3 crore. The Railway spent an average of nearly Rs 14 lakh per day to run the train, earned around Rs 17.5 lakh daily from passenger fares, said the report.

Tejas Express was started as a part of the Railways’ attempt to develop 50 world-class railway stations. It also aims to allow private passenger train operators to run 150 trains on its network. 

The state-of-the-art train offers passengers a range of facilities like reading lights, coffee machines, CCTV cameras, aeroplane-styled vacuum-toilets, LED TV,  and automatic doors. It allows entry only using e-ticket, m-ticket or paper issued by the IRCTC and offers passengers compensation for the delay in run time. The train also has tickets inclusive of travel insurance worth 50 lakh and fares 50 per cent less than that of flights, among other attractive perks.

Also Read: In A First, IRCTC To Pay Fine Of Rs 1.62 Lakh To Over 900 Passengers For Tejas Express Delay