How much Indian Railways is worth!

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One has to assess the individual constituents and sum up

(for those not conversant with Indian numeral system: Lakh = 100 thousand and Crore = 10 million.)

1. The Indian Railways owns approximately 4.77 lakh hectare of land = 11.78 lakh acres .( Approximate per acre cost of land is around INR 6 lakh ) as of March 3, 2018.

2. 75000 coaches ( avers cost taking average of old and new coaches @1.5 INR crores each )

3. 3 lakh wagons ( Each costing @30 INR lakhs )

4. 14000 locomotives (each cost @10 INR crores)

5. 50 major cranes( each costing around INR 50 crores.

(almost 99% of locomotives, coaches , wagons and cranes have been manufactured in india in Indian Railway departmentally owned production units/workshops except for some new locomotives which are manufactured in india in PPP units established with WABTECH at Maehowra for high horse power (6000Hp) Disel locomotives and at Madhepura with ALSTHOM for 12000 HP electric locomotives.)

6. 7000 Railway stations (Each will need individual evaluation)

7. 16 Zonal hospitals, 70 divisional hospitals and 100+ primary health centres.

Own security setup (Railway protection force)

Own medical setup with highly trained doctors recruited through tough selection test conducted by UPSC

8. Railway Housing colonies

9. Administrative buildings for Railway Board, Zonal & Divisional Headquarters, workshops

10. Production units (7 departmental + 2 in PPP mode by ALSTHOM and WEBTAC)

11. Wholly owned subsidiaries like CRIS , COFMOW, CAMTECH, RDSO, RRBs (Railway recruitment Boards).

12. Majority stakes in around 10 Railway centric listed PSUs.

13. Schools, stadiums, clubs, community centres.

14. 11 lakh employees (average monthly cost of one employee 1 lakh).

15. 2 lakh crore earnings and almost similar level of expenditure.

Most of the rolling stock is hypothecated to IRFC with Indian Railways paying annual lease charges to IRFC.

Technical staff and Engineers of Railways are in great demand world over for their technical acumen and administrative experience.

RDSO is a veritable knowledge power house for Railway technology.

(locomotives, Passenger coaches, Wagons, cranes, track, Bridge, OHE, tunnels etc).

Institutional knowledge in various areas of Railways possessed by Indian Railways officers and staff is highly valued world over.

Skill possessed by railway officers in manufacturing, maintenance, Digital applications, data management, signalling and communications, rolling stock management, civil engineering works including track, bridge, and tunnels, contracts evaluation, procurement, conducting recruitment, holding enquiries, arbitration, scrap auction/disposal etc are being used by various agencies.

Written by – Lalit Chand Trivedi, IRSME (Retd.) & Former #GM_ECR.

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