New Delhi, Feb 5 (TIWN) The Indian Railways, which saw suspension of its passenger, mail and express trains for the first time in its history due to the Covid pandemic, is now hopeful to improve its operating ratio, or the balance between expenditure and revenue, in next few months, officials said on Friday.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in Parliament in December 2019, had said that the railways recorded an operating ratio of 98.44 per cent in 2017-18, the worst in the last 10 years. Even last year, the CAG, in its report. slammed the railways saying that it had resorted to "window dressing" to present its operating ratio in a better light during financial year 2018-19 by including advance freight payment in its calculations.  A senior Railway Ministry official, wishing not to be named, told IANS: "There are few things that have already taken place in Indian Railways. One is massive reduction in our expenditure as we have done optimisation of resources."  Noting that the national transporter is likely to save around Rs 18,000 crore from this, he also said that the Indian Railways has also taken other optimisation of other resources like reducing the fuel costs.