Railways incurs Rs 3945.27 cr export expenditure in 3 years

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has incurred an expenditure of Rs 3945.27 crore from 2009-10 to 2011-12 on import of spare parts, coaches, engines and other related materials.

This was informed by Minister of State for Railways Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. In 2009-10, the railways incurred an import expenditure of Rs 1,303.46 crore, followed by Rs 1,353.17 crore the next year. In 2011-12, the import bill was Rs 1,288.64 crore.

On the estimated total expenditure on import in next three years, he said, it cannot be estimated "as railways resort to import in inescapable circumstances". Reddy also informed the House on the steps taken by the government to manufacture these products indigenously.

"Research Design and Standard Organisation/ Production Units are entrusted with the responsibility of developing indigenous sources. Owing to these efforts approximately 96 per cent of goods purchases on Indian Railways are indigenous," he said.