DIESEL has become the source of major worries for Indian Railways, which raised fares by 4.5 per cent this week on account of escalating fuel spend. On top of that is emission from the thousands of diesel engines, a matter that has gone to the National Green Tribunal. On July 7, Railways will have to appear before the NGT to apprise it of plans to formulate an emission standard for diesel engines, a first such move in the country.
Since the railways cannot do without diesel, which fuels around 60 per cent of its locomotives, it is working on a plan to try and reduce the bills, which rose 45 per cent to Rs 20,000 crore in the year ending March 31, 2014. Consumption increased only four per cent, but the price of diesel rose 34 per cent.
The Railway Ministry has called a meeting of zonal railways next month to discuss strategies to bring down the bill. In an audit, the ministry has found that thanks to various state taxes and cesses on diesel, there is a price difference of over Rs 12 between the cheapest diesel fuelling point and the costliest across India. It has circulated a list of 58 fuelling points where the price of a litre is upwards of Rs 68, and asked zonal railways to avoid those places and to fill their tanks from the cheaper stations nearest their areas. The estimate is that a nominal saving of Re 1 a litre can save up to Rs 300 crore per year on the railways? fuel bill.
For bringing down emission, it is learnt that the PSU Rites has been asked to carry out a study, but the amount it has quoted for the first phase of a year is still being negotiated. In a recent meeting with Rites, oil companies and the Central Pollution Control Board, Railways discussed whether such an exercise could be part-funded by other ministries such as Environment and Petroleum.
The US and the European Union have standards for locomotives, while countries such as Canada, China and Australia are working on standards for themselves.