Lok Sabha Question No. 6085 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-04-04
Subject: Uneconomical Train Stoppages
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: NARANBHAI KACHHADIA, BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SUDHEER GUPTA, GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR, ANWHAR RAAJHAA, VIJAY KUMAR S.R., T. RADHAKRISHNAN, ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6085 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.04.2018

## UNECONOMICAL TRAIN STOPPAGES

## 6085.   SHRI   NARANBHAI  KACHHADIYA  :

SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO :

KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH :

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA :

SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR :

SHRI  A. ANWHAR RAAJHAA :

SHRI  S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR :

SHRI  T. RADHAKRISHNAN :

SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN :

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state :

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  constituted  a  Committee  to  look  into strategies for increasing the carrying capacity and speed of trains and whether the Committee has submitted its report to the Government;
- (b) if so, the main recommendations made by the Committee;
- (c) whether the Railway Board has directed Zonal Railways to prepare a list of uneconomical train stoppages and withdraw them over a period of time and whether the railway divisions have finalized their list;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  other  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  cut  down expenditure and make Indian Railways profitable?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a)to(e)   A Statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION  NO.  6085  BY  SHRI      NARANBHAI  KACHHADIYA,    SHRI  BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH,                SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA,  SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR, SHRI  A. ANWHAR RAAJHAA,  SHRI  S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR,  SHRI  T. RADHAKRISHNAN AND  SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN        TO  BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK  SABHA  ON  04.04.2018  REGARDING UNECONOMICAL TRAIN STOPPAGES

(a) & (b) : No, Madam. However, with a view to increase speed and mobility of trains  in  Indian  Railways  an  Action  Plan  has  been  formulated  which  include removal  of  speed  restrictions,  construction  of  road  over  bridges(ROBs)  and road under bridges (RUBs), right powering of trains, introduction of twin-pipe in  wagons  and  replacement  of  conventional  trains  by  Main  Line  Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains and Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains.

(c) : No, Madam.  Although review of uneconomical/experimental stoppages is an  ongoing  process  over  Indian  Railways,  however,  at  present  there  is  no proposal of withdrawal of uneconomical/experimental stoppages provided over Indian Railways.

(d) :  Does not arise.

(e)  :  Indian  Railways(IR)  is  already  generating  surplus  after  meeting  all  its revenue expenditure from its own revenues. However, improving the profitability  of  IR  is  an  ongoing  process  executed  through  measures  for enhancing earnings and controlling avoidable revenue expenditure.

Revenue  enhancing  measures,  inter  alia,  include  targeting  progressively higher  traffic  throughput,  effective marketing strategies to capture more

and more traffic, creation of additional capacity and optimum utilization of the existing rail infrastructure, enhancement  in  productivity and efficiency, improvement  of  passenger  interface,  periodic  rationalization  of  fare  and freight rates and focus on increasing the share of non-fare revenue sources in Railways' earnings.

For  controlling  revenue  expenses,  Railways  are  given  spending  limits  lower than  the  sanctioned  budget.  They  are  also  repeatedly  instructed  to  effect savings in revenue expenditure to compensate for unavoidable post-budgetary increases such as revision of diesel prices,  hike  in  power  tariff,  increase  in rates of certain allowances/incentive bonus etc.  The expenditure is monitored strictly  according  to  the  spending  limits  through  monthly  financial  reviews. Other expenditure control measures include:

-  Tight control over expenditure in areas such as fuel/power consumption, contractual payments, purchase of materials etc is maintained.
-  Energy audit of major load centres, effecting savings in electricity bills due to 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.

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