The Western Railway (WR) has crossed another milestone by gaining the distinction of becoming the first zone of the Indian Railways to surpass a revenue of Rs 200 crore through the sale of scrap during this financial year.
According to Sumit Thakur, WR's chief public relations officer, this is a part of the direction toward the 'Zero Scrap Mission'. WR sold scrap worth Rs 200.69 crore till August 10. This is also the best ever figure achieved to date and 62 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year, when WR earned Rs 123.63 crore. With respect to the proportionate target of Rs 113.67 crore, WR has achieved 76 per cent higher revenue this financial year.
“In the past four years, WR has been consistently selling scrap of approximately Rs 500 crore, which has helped in monetisation of blocked funds and consequent revenue generation. In the last financial year, WR sold scrap worth Rs 513.46 crore,” the WR spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, railway officials asserted that there have been consistent efforts toward making scrap sales more accessible and transparent. All the auctions and money transactions in the railways are being done electronically.
“The railways conducted 100 per cent e-auctions through auction-conducting officers in divisions and store depots. Scrap is sold in lots and these lots are formed by the segregation of a similar nature of items such as ferrous, non-ferrous, rails, track items, PSC sleepers, locomotives, wagons, coaches, etc,” officials further stated.
