There has been a continuous endeavor on part of the Railways to optimize and reduce the costs and further improve all productivities. As a result of various measures taken in this regard, the Railways have been able to substantially control the growth of Ordinary Working Expenses during the current fiscal so far. Apart from this, austerity and economy measures are being regularly enforced in Railways in order to ensure savings in the operating expenditure.

The steps taken by the Ministry of Railways to optimize and reduce the costs are as under:

• Tight monitoring and control over expenditure in areas such as fuel/power consumption, contractual payments, purchase of materials etc.
• Energy audit of major load centres, effecting savings in electricity bills through purchase of power by railways as “distribution licensee”.
• Prioritization of expenditure on works/activities for better use of available resources.
• Improvement in Manpower productivity.
• Improvement in asset utilization by taking innovative measures and best practices available.
• Improvement in inventory management.
• Reducing the cost of operation and maintenance of rolling stock.

The operational cost of the railway since March 2020 to February 2021 is Rs. 1,34,361 cr (including expenditure for the month of March’2020).

Railway has played an important role during the current pandemic situation. During the lockdown period, the freight services of the railways have run in full swing transporting the essential commodities like foodgrains, coal, medicine etc. and ensuring the supply chains across the country. Further, Sharmik special trains were also run to move over 6.3 million stranded persons as per the demand of various State Governments. In the post lockdown phase, the passenger services are being progressively resumed as per demand, suggestions and requirements of State Government and COVID protocol.

Capital Outlay for 2021-22 has been fixed at an all time high of Rs. 2,15,058 crore. The thrust of the Budget is on infrastructure development, throughput enhancement, development of terminal facilities, augmentation of speed of trains, signalling systems, improvement of passengers/users’ amenities, safety works of road over/under bridges etc. Focused allocation has been made for New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification Projects, Rolling Stock, Road Over/Under Bridges, Track Renewal, Passenger Amenities, Investment in Public Sector Undertaking/Joint Venture/Special Purpose Vehicles and Metropolitan Transport Projects. This will propel the Railways into fast track development of infrastructure and capacity enhance for laying foundation of future ready Railways.

This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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DJN/MKV