Lok Sabha Question No. 3492 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-17
Subject: Performance of Railway zones
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Supriya Sadanand Sule, Sunil Dattatray Tatkare, Amol Ramsing Kolhe, DNV Senthilkumar. S., Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Kuldeep Rai Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK  SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3492

TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.03.2021

## PERFORMANCE OF RAILWAY ZONES

## 3492. SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:

SHRI SUNIL DATTATRAY TATKARE:

DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE:

DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR. S.:

DR. SUBHASH RAMRAO BHAMRE:

SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  the  extent  to which the Railway Zones   have achieved  the objectives for which they have been established;
- (b)  whether  every   new  Railway  Zone  created  has fulfilled  the factors  like size,  workload,  accessibility, traffic  pattern,  operational  and  administrative requirements and if so, the details thereof, zone-wise;
- (c)    the  details  of  gross income of each division since its creation, division and zone-wise;
- (d)    whether  the  Southern  Railway has reported low income compared to other Railway Zones;
- (e)  if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (f) whether the Government proposes to sanction more Railway Zones considering the demands of various States and if so, the details thereof; and
- (g) whether the Railway Board has conducted rating of its zones, if so, the details and  the  outcome  thereof  and  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  improve overall performance of all the Railway Zones so as to improve profitability of the Railways?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMERCE & INDUSTRY AND CONSUMER

AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

- (a) to (g): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (g)  OF  UNSTARRED QUESTION  NO.3492  BY SHRIMATI SUPRIYA  SULE,  SHRI  SUNIL  DATTATRAY TATKARE, DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE, DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR. S., DR. SUBHASH RAMRAO  BHAMRE  AND  SHRI  KULDEEP  RAI  SHARMA  TO  BE  ANSWERED  IN  LOK SABHA ON 17.03.2021 REGARDING PERFORMANCE OF RAILWAY ZONES

(a) & (b): Zones on Indian Railways are created keeping in view the factors like size, workload, accessibility, traffic patterns and other operational/administrative requirements consistent with the needs of economy and efficiency.  All the Railway Zones are performing at optimum level to achieve Indian Railways' primary objective of  providing  safe,  efficient,  financially  viable,  customer-focused  and  environment friendly integrated transportation solutions.

(c): Earning records are not maintained division-wise. Details of all Zones, including total earnings, zones-wise since last re-organisation of Indian Railways in 2003-04, are given below:

| S.No.              | Zonal Railway              | Headquarter   | Year of Creation   | Number of Divisions   | Gross earnings since 2003-04 to 2019-20 ( ` in Crore)   |
|--------------------|----------------------------|---------------|--------------------|-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| 1. Central Railway | 1. Central Railway         | Mumbai        | 1951               | 5                     | 159,524.38                                              |
| 2.                 | Eastern Railway            | Kolkata       | 1952               | 4                     | 79,050.28                                               |
| 3.                 | East Central Railway       | Hajipur       | 2002               | 5                     | 127,564.11                                              |
| 4.                 | East Coast Railway         | Bhubaneswar   | 2003               | 3                     | 169,188.83                                              |
| 5.                 | Northern Railway           | New Delhi     | 1952               | 5                     | 195,345.30                                              |
| 6.                 | North Central Railway      | Prayagraj     | 2003               | 3                     | 162,311.74                                              |
| 7.                 | North Eastern Railway      | Gorakhpur     | 1952               | 3                     | 36,494.36                                               |
| 8.                 | Northeast Frontier Railway | Guwahati      | 1958               | 5                     | 62,541.52                                               |
| 9.                 | North Western Railway      | Jaipur        | 2002               | 4                     | 77,796.84                                               |
| 10.                | Southern Railway           | Chennai       | 1951               | 6                     | 95,484.25                                               |
| 11.                | South Central Railway      | Secunderabad  | 1966               | 6                     | 180,959.33                                              |
| 12.                | South Eastern Railway      | Kolkata       | 1955               | 4                     | 151,368.99                                              |
| 13.                | South East Central Railway | Bilaspur      | 2003               | 3                     | 135,056.42                                              |
| 14.                | South Western Railway      | Hubli         | 2003               | 3                     | 58,351.45                                               |
| 15.                | Western Railway            | Mumbai        | 1951               | 6                     | 153,513.33                                              |
| 16.                | West Central Railway       | Jabalpur      | 2003               | 3                     | 123,028.00                                              |
| 17.                | Metro Railway              | Kolkata       | 2010               | -                     | 2,254.96                                                |
|                    | Total                      |               |                    | 68                    | 1,969,834.08                                            |

(d): No, Sir. (e): Does not arise. (f):  The  Government  has  recently  approved  setting  up  of  a  new  Railway  Zone  viz. South Coast Railway (SCoR) with its headquarter at Visakhapatnam.  Apart from this, the Government does not propose to sanction any other railway zone. (g): There is no existing practice to give ratings to various Railway zones.  However, to  assign  greater  accountability  to  the  Zonal  Railways  and  also  to  ensure  that decision making at field level gets expedited, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is  signed  between  Secretary,  Railway  Board  and  General  Managers  of  each  Zonal Railway. Under these MOUs, all the Zonal Railways, undertake to achieve the targets for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) given in the MOU. These KPIs inter-alia cover operational  and  financial  performance,  infrastructure  creation  works,  capacity utilization, asset maintenance and reliability. To  improve  overall  performance  of  all  Railway  zones  and  profitability  of  Railways, thrust is on setting targets for all zones in the beginning of the Financial Year for freight loading, passenger traffic, earnings, expenditure, punctuality and infrastructure  creation,  and  reviewing  the  performance  regularly.    Further,  annual targets  are  also  being  set  for  improving  asset  utilization  and  productivity.    The performance is evaluated and monitored regularly through monthly review meeting. Issues  and  constraints  faced  by  zones  regarding  performance  are  also  addressed regularly.  To  encourage  competition  amongst  Railway  Zones,  the  best  overall performing  Zone  is  awarded  every  year.  Awards  are  also  given  to  Zones  for excellence in performance in specific areas also.

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