OREANDA-NEWS. Railways have taken various measures to improved their financial condition, which inter alia, include rationalization of the fare and freight structure taking into account the cost of inputs, introduction of dynamic Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC) in its tariff, proposed setting up of rail Tariff Regulatory Authority (RTRA), prioritizing the projects for better resources utilization, setting up a new debt service fund for timely discharge of loan liabilities etc.

There are no losses on Railways since the Operating Ratio budgeted in 2013-14 is 87.8%.  Nevertheless, Railways have initiated various cost cutting measures as broadly outlined below:-

Strict resource management to ensure that expenditure does not exceed resources;
Prioritization of works for optimal use of scarce resources;
Improvement in staff productivity through better man-power planning;
Better asset utilization;
Improvement in inventory management;
Optimization of fuel consumption;
Tight control over expenditure in areas such as contractual payment, overtime allowance, purchase of material etc;

Austerity and economy measures in areas such as hospitality, publicity, advertisements, inaugural ceremonies, seminars and workshops, contingent office expenses etc;
Implementation of the guidelines on expenditure control and management circulated by the Ministry of Finance on the Railways also;
Rigorous monitoring of expenditure with respect to the monthly budget proportions, etc.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.