India is exporting metro railway coaches to countries like Australia, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. African nations like Mozambique and Senegal and neighbouring countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are receiving rolling stock exports.
As per a break up, India is exporting coaches to Mozambique, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka; locomotives to Mozambique, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Bangladesh
Additionally, bogie underframes are being exported to the UK, Saudi Arabia, France and Australia, while propulsion parts are being sent to France, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Romania and Italy, said Vaishnaw.
In railways parlance, rolling stock refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles like locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can be unpowered, or self-propelled, single or multiple units.
“We can all take pride in the fact that metro railway coaches are being exported to Australia now,” the Minister said.
Affordable travel
According to the Minister, railways continues to provide travel at affordable fares. He said that rail fares in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are higher than those in India, and even so in western countries, where rail fares are 10-20 times higher than what is charged here.
For a 350-km journey, general class fare in India is ₹121 vs ₹436 in Pakistan, ₹323 in Bangladesh and ₹413 in Sri Lanka.
The cost of train travel/km in India works out at ₹1.38 per passenger, of which passengers are charged just about half or 73 paise – indicating that there is a subsidy of 47 per cent. Passengers received a subsidy of ₹60,000 crore in FY24 (provisional figures). “No fair hikes have happened since 2020,” he said.
Even in 2020, the increase was minimal — only 1 paisa per km for general class, with a slightly higher increase for the air-conditioned class, it was pointed out.
Vaishnaw said, railways aims to achieve scope 1 net zero emissions by 2025 and scope 2 net zero emissions by 2030, thereby offsetting the railway’s carbon emissions. The railways has a net zero target by 2030.
India produced 1,400 locomotives and 2,00,000 new wagons have been added to the fleet.
As part of the safety drive, all ICF coaches will be replaced with LHB coaches. “The implementation of long rails, electronic interlocking, fog safety devices and the ‘kavach’ safety system is progressing rapidly,” he said.
Self reliant
The railways has an annual revenue of approximately ₹2.78 lakh crore and expenditures amounting to ₹2.75 lakh crore. The railways’ major expenses are being met through its own income, “which is a result of its strong performance”.
“We are much better positioned in terms of finances. Staff cost is ₹1,16,000 crore, pension bill is ₹66,000 crore, financing cost (for loans) is ₹25,000 crore and ₹32,000 crore is the energy consumption bill. All this is met through own resource generation,” Vaishnaw said.
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Be the first to comment