Railways withdraws 'Rail Neer only' circular, stalls sell other brands as well

Railways withdraws 'Rail Neer only' circular, stalls sell other brands as well

The railways, after causing lakhs of commuters severe hardship with its knee-jerk 'Rail Neer only' water policy at suburban stations for the past one week, has finally started getting a grip on the situation by Friday. Faced with the fact that Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation's (IRCTC)'s Ambernath Rail Neer plant cannot supply the entire demand for packaged drinking water (PDW) emanating from Mumbai's stations, WR authorities early Friday morning allowed stalls to sell other brands as well.

In a reply to dna's query, GC Agarwal, WR general manager, said that IRCTC had written to WR that it will be able to supply Rail Neer to 14 mandated stations (stations where Railway Board has stipulated that only Rail Neer be sold) while the rest of the stations can sell other brands approved by the railways. These mandated stations include Churchgate, Marine Lines, Grant Road, Dadar, Bandra Terminus, Bandra, Kandivli, Borivli among others.

A query sent to CR authorities, including general manager SK Sood, on whether the 'Rail Neer only' circular was one issued in haste elicited no response.

On their part, IRCTC authorities told dna that they would revving up production at its Ambernath plant by November 1. Speaking to dna, Sandip Dutta, chief spokesperson of IRCTC, said, "By November 1, all three shifts will be operated at the Ambernath plant and we will be able to take production to full capacity of 16,000 cases (each case has 12 bottles) per day. Currently, the production level is around 10,000 cases."

Prior to the CBI raid on two top Northern Railway officials charged with conniving with private PDW manufacturers to thwart supply of Rail Neer, the production at the Rail Neer plant was around 3,000 cases.

Officials agreed that the 'Rail Neer only' circular was a knee-jerk one by both WR and CR and was also done without a realistic assessment of the demand for PDW, especially during October when Mumbai tends to experience high temperatures and energy-sapping humidity. While IRCTC's Ambernath plant at full capacity per day can produce 1,92,000 bottles, the total demand for PDW during the summer from Mumbai (both WR and CR) is around 3 lakh bottles per day. Apart from this, a circular issued in August last year (circular number 32 of 2014) mandated that all passengers of Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains must compulsorily be given a complimentary bottle of Rail Neer. If the journey is above 20 hours, then the passenger must get two bottles of Rail Neer. This itself adds up to several thousand bottles per day.

"It is possible the CBI raids and previous complaints by the IRCTC that both WR sand CR are not taking their entire quota of Rail Neer being produced at Ambernath plant caused the officials in the commercial department to implement the 'Rail Neer only' circular in haste. What it has done is cause lots of problems to commuters and also revenue loss to railways. Several people willing to pay Rs15 for PDW were turned back at stalls since there was no supply itself," said an IRCTC official.

Numbers game:

Rail Neer daily production capacity - 6.14 lakh bottles

Rail Neer production in 2013-14 - 10.45 crore bottles

Rail Neer production in 2014-15 - 11.8 crore bottles

Rail Neer production target 2015-16 - 16 crore bottles

Rail Neer revenue for 2013-14 - Rs88 crore

Rail Neer revenue for 2014-15 - Rs96 crore

Rail Neer revenue estimate 2015-16 - Rs120 crore

Source :DNA INDIA.