Railways spent Rs 150 crore to repair over 2,000 damaged wagons for coal movement

“The cost of repairing these wagons ranges between Rs 5-10 lakh each. Private contractors used by power plants began substituting manual unloading with JCBs. JCBs hit the interior of the wagons and damage them severely. While earlier, this unloading was done manually, now, its being done through JCBs which have resulted in a significant increase in the number of wagons that are damaged,” a ministry official said.

According to the data, 9,982 wagons were shown as damaged as on January 1, the number increased to 10,687 by January 6. On February 11, it was 7,267 and rose to 7,803 as on May 2, data shows.

According to officials aware of the development, due to depleting stocks at the coal fields, the turnover time of wagons waiting for coal loading has increased from seven days to around 15-20 days. Railways has also increased the operating duration of rakes by 2,500km, giving them more running time.