New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS): In a good news to 11.07 lakh railway personnel across the country, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) of Rs 1,978.87 crore equivalent to 78 days’ wages for the financial year 2022-23 to all eligible non-gazetted Railway employees.

The Productivity Linked Bonus was approved during the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to non gazetted railway employees -- Track maintainer, Loco Pilots, Train Managers (Guards), Station Masters, Supervisors, Technicians, Technician Helpers, Pointsman, Ministerial Staff and other Group ‘C’ staff (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel).

In a statement, the government said, "In recognition of this excellent performance by the Railway staff, Union government has approved payment of PLB of Rs 1,968.87 crore to 11,07,346 railway employees."

"The performance of Railways in the year 2022-2023 was very good. Railways loaded a record cargo of 1509 Million Tonnes and carried nearly 6.5 Billion Passengers," it said.

It also said that many factors contributed to this record performance. These include improvement in infrastructure due to infusion of record Capex by the Government in Railways, efficiency in operations and better technology, etc.

"Payment of PLB will act as an incentive to motivate the Railway employees for working towards further improvement in performance," it added.