Question : Water Management Policy

(a) whether the Indian Railways is planning to introduce water management policy in the Indian Railway and if so, the details thereof along with its objectives;

(b) whether there is a proposal to set up National Railway Water Management Fund to give incentives to Railway divisions to boost replacement of fresh water consumption with recycled water and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the steps taken by the Railways for preparing a strategy for water management in the interest of the Railways;

(d) whether the Railways is considering to make mandatory use of solar water heaters, water tariff storm water management and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the other steps taken by the Union Government to make Indian Railways world standard and profit earning entity?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a) to (d) A draft policy is under consideration, and consultation with other stakeholders is under process. The objective is to improve water use efficiency by setting up Water Recycling Plants, Rain Water Harvesting Plants, Sewage Treatment Plants and Effluent Treatment Plants on railway land.

(e) Steps for making Indian Railways a profit earning entity include measures for enhancing earnings on the one hand and controlling avoidable revenue expenditure on the other. 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. Expenditure control measures include strict economy and austerity measures, improved man-power planning, better asset utilization, inventory management and optimizing fuel consumption etc.

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