Overview

• The Union Cabinet cleared a Productivity Linked Bonus equivalent to 78 days’ wages, with a total outlay of about Rs 1,865.68–1,866 crore for 10,91,146 non-gazetted employees.
• Each eligible employee can receive up to Rs 17,951, with disbursal planned before the Durga Puja and Dussehra holidays.
• Beneficiaries span Group C and erstwhile Group D roles, including track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers, station masters, technicians, helpers, pointsmen, supervisors and ministerial staff.
• Government notes Indian Railways handled a record 1,614.90 million tonnes of freight and nearly 7.3 billion passengers in 2024–25.
• Railway federations renewed demands to revise the PLB calculation base to seventh pay commission levels, a change not included in the approval; the Cabinet also cleared projects such as doubling the Bakhtiyarpur–Rajgir–Tilaiya line in Bihar, with wider approvals reported at about Rs 94,000–95,000 crore.