Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is operating Tejas Express train on the New Delhi-Lucknow sector w.e.f. 04.10.2019. During the period 04.10.2019 to 31.10.2019, IRCTC has earned an approximate amount of ₹ 7.73 lakh, as operational earning, by operation of the said Tejas Express.

Indian Railways offers various kinds of train services to cater to the need of a diverse set of passengers. Trains like Gatimaan Express, Vande Bharat Express, etc. are provided with augmented facilities and are popular among the premium segment. Trains like Rajdhani Express, Duronto Express, Shatabdi Express etc. offer fully reserved accommodation and facilitate the long distance and inter-city passengers.

Further, other Mail Express trains and Antyodaya train are operated for the benefit of general passengers including those travelling on unreserved tickets. The fare of Sleeper and Second Class is highly subsidised and as a part of its Social Service Obligation, fare concessions are offered to various categories like Senior citizens, freedom fighters, Students, Divyangjans etc. even in the reserved classes.

Consequently, on an average, Indian Railways recovers only 57% of cost of travel. The scope and scale of trains operated over Indian Railways, which carries about 23 million passengers on a daily basis cannot currently be compared with the New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express being operated by IRCTC, in which fare is generally higher as compared to similar services on Indian Railways and no concession is admissible. However, systemic improvements over Indian Railways is a continuous and an ongoing process.

This press release is based on information given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today

The  new luxury train offering for business travellers and tourists and its launch during Navratras and the festive season is a gift for passengers. For the first time full working and ticketing control of a train is with IRCTC. Train number 82501/82502 will ply between the New Delhi Railway station (NDLS)-Lucknow NE (LJN) route for six days a week. While Train number 82501 Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express will complete the journey in 6 hours and 15 minutes, Train number 82502 New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express will take 6 hours and 30 minutes.

The success of this new experiment by Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways will make way for private operators to run trains in India. The Railway Board has already asked zonal railways to consider the feasibility of running private trains on 50 key routes including Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah.

Tejas Express is a more premium version of the Shatabdi Express group of air-conditioned chair cars. There are several unique features of this new IRCTC Tejas Express train. In a first, passengers will be paid for any delay on an hourly basis. A whopping Rs 25 lakh free insurance will be provided for each passenger.