Railways target reduction in operating costs

Fixes target of paring operating ratio from existing 94% to 85% while improving infra at the same time

Reducing operating ratio was a big challenge before the Railways and a target of reducing it to 85 per cent from exisiting 94 per cent has been fixed, Union Minister of state Manoj Sinha said here today.

"When our government came to power then operating ratio was 94 per cent which meant a saving of four rupees from the income of Rs 100. From this saving a lot of work right from uplifting railway stations to international level and operate double decker train has to be done," Sinha told reporters after review of Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

"As of now our target is to reduce operating ratios from exisiting 94 per cet to 85 per cent. To suggest on how to reduce this ratio a high-level committee of the experts has been constituted," he added.

The MoS said that ensuring safe railway journey along with development of infrastructure facilities and reducing operating cost was a major area of concern.

He said that several measure were being taken along with modernisation of infrastructure facilities.

Taking a dig at previous governments Sinha said that earlier railways used to be either of Bihar, Bengal or any other state, but the present government was working with the entire country in focus.

Terming safe railway journey as priority, he said that during Atal Bihari Vajpayee government a safety fund was created and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be requested to revive it in the next budget.

He termed unmanned railway crossings as a big challenge for safety and said that there were nore than 10,000 such crossings in the country.

He said that efforts were being made either to close or man such crossings in the next two years.

Sinha said that on one hand Modi government was taking steps to launch bullet trains, on the other it was also making efforts for safe journey, quality food in trains and modernise ticket selling.

He said that considering the number of passengers, number of trains was not adequate and efforts were being made in this direction, but it would take time.