Railways target cash surplus of Rs 16082 crore

New Delhi, Sep 6 (UNI) The Railways has targeted a cash surplus of Rs.16082 crore after dividend in the current year, which is to be utilised to finance its plans of augmenting track and rolling stock and replacing the infrastructure, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Railways R Velu said Rs 218 crore had so far been sanctioned for various works costing above Rs.50 lakh to bring about improvement in sanitary conditions of service buildings (including station buildings), railway colonies and the condition of coaches and provision of green toilets.

In the current year's Plan, an amount of Rs.23 crore (0.14 per cent of the cash surplus) has been provided for undertaking these works. Works valuing less than Rs 50 lakh are undertaken by the Zonal Railways.

Mr Velu said an amount of Rs 800 crore would be spent on the sanitation of service buildings (including stations), residential colonies and welfare buildings and the coaches from out of the working expenses of the Railways which are incurred before arriving at the surplus.

He said a special campaign had been launched to mark the year 2007 as 'cleanliness year'. Frontline staff are being imparted 'on the job customer care training' as well as classroom training for a period of one year.

The minister said the railways had identified a number of stations for developing them as 'Clean Train Stations'.

''Railways are also making special efforts to improve the standards of cleanliness and hygiene in trains with special emphasis on rake cleaning in the depots through mechanised cleaning arrangements, enroute cleaning at Clean Train Stations and a comprehensive cockroach and rodent control in trains,'' he informed the Lower House.

UNI