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Escalating revenue expenditure because of the sixth PC has again left railways with no choice but to resort to standard pracitices of curtailing plan expenditure. Is it the best strategy? Are there hidden expenditures which we can curtail without hitting at the perks and perquisites of the employees (incl officers) and generate investible surplus for the railways. Views are solicited on the following:

1.Huge expenditure on NIT publications in newspapers. Irrelevant conditions are also listed. Our NIT cost is at times approximately 5-10% of the tender values. Can't we reduce the NIT to one column centimeter and the complete tender document viewed on the website. Each railway should be spending not less than Rs.10-15 Cr per annum on NITs alone. Can't we convert this into better focussed expenditure on advertising/sales promotions so that revenues increase...or just simply save Rs.200Cr on an all india basis
2.A discussion was started in irastimes itself on the cost of PRS tickets- some worked it out to be approx.Rs.40 per ticket. If thats the case,we are talking of excess of Rs.500Cr on cost of sale of PRS tickets alone. Why not remove the surcharge on IRCTC e-tickets and usage of Credit/Debit cards on PRS. At one point, we are talking of ECS/NEFT and cashless transactions but we impose a surcharge of Rs.30 per ticket for passengers who use their credit/debit cards at PRS. Why this double speak? The PRS staff would definitely not be left idle- current counters, UTS-cum-PRS and also face-to-face equiries are opportunities in which we are not giving service to our passengers..

R.Gopalakrishnan