South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager P.K. Srivastava said Indian Railways was bothered by the rise in electricity tariff and cost of diesel which together inflated the expenditure by nearly Rs 3,500 crore. Revenue deficit is hovering at Rs 11,000 crore with the increase in energy bill accounting for a substantial portion of the spurt in overall expenditure. Net revenue receipts were down during the year 2013-14 by Rs 5,000 crore.
Addressing media persons after inspecting the electric loco-shed and inaugurating a new Running Room built at a cost of Rs 4 crore near the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM)’s office here on Saturday, Mr. Srivastava said efforts were under way to curb the costs of fuel and electricity by improving the efficiency of locomotives whose average lifespan was 16 lakh kilometres. It was planned to be increased to 25 lakh kilometres. It was imperative that the cooperation of running staff was needed for achieving that goal.
Mr. Srivastava said the Railways had to introduce dynamic fare system during busy seasons to compensate the increasing expenditure to some extent. Seventeen premium trains were covered by this system.
Mr. Srivastava said running staff required proper rest and their families were advised not to disturb them when they return from long hours of duty because adjusting the sleep cycle was a difficult thing and failure to do so would impact their performance. Each locomotive has 3.8 running staff whose best efforts helped the Railways in reaching many a milestone. It would not be possible without their high health and fitness levels.
SCR Chief Electrical Engineer G.R. Agarwal, Vijayawada DRM Pradeep Kumar, Additional DRM N.S.R. Prasad, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (Operations) G.P. Muthalik were present.
